Supreme Court & Federal Appellate Litigation

Supreme Court and appellate counsel, handled personally.

Wang Law PLLC is a boutique litigation practice focused on the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal courts of appeals. Clients work directly with Xiao Wang, a two-time winning Supreme Court advocate trained at Williams & Connolly and Yale Law School, from strategy through briefing and oral argument.

Discuss a matter Representative experience
Admitted
U.S. Supreme Court, every federal court of appeals, Washington, D.C., and California
Clerkships
Sixth Circuit · Northern District of California
Trained at
Williams & Connolly · Wilkinson Stekloff · Yale Law School
Recognized
Law360 Legal Lion of the Week, April 2025 and June 2025

Xiao Wang’s cases and commentary have been covered by

Practice

Focused on the courts where cases are decided for good.

The firm represents individuals, companies, organizations, and fellow counsel at every stage of federal appellate litigation, from shaping the record in the trial court to arguing before the Supreme Court.

01

U.S. Supreme Court

Representation at every stage before the Court, from assessing whether a case is certworthy to arguing it at the lectern.

  • Petitions for certiorari and briefs in opposition
  • Merits and reply briefs
  • Oral argument
02

Federal Courts of Appeals

Briefing and argument in all thirteen federal circuits, for appellants and appellees alike.

  • Opening, response, and reply briefs
  • Oral argument
  • Petitions for rehearing and en banc proceedings
03

Amicus Curiae Briefs

Briefs for organizations, scholars, and coalitions that can give a court a perspective the parties cannot.

  • Supreme Court and circuit amicus briefs
  • Certiorari-stage and merits-stage support
  • Coalition and scholar briefs
04

Strategy, Co-Counsel & Moots

Appellate judgment for cases still in the trial court, and rigorous preparation for advocates handling their own arguments.

  • Issue preservation and appellate strategy
  • Co-counsel with trial teams and litigation firms
  • Moot courts and argument preparation

Subject-matter experience

  • Employment discrimination & Title VII
  • ERISA & employee benefits
  • Constitutional law
  • Religious liberty
  • Civil rights
  • Qualified immunity
  • Bivens & federal officers
  • Federal sentencing
  • Class actions & complex litigation
  • Federal courts & jurisdiction

The Firm

The experience of a Supreme Court advocate. The attention of a boutique.

Direct access

You work with Xiao Wang himself on the strategy, the writing, and the argument. Your matter is not handed off to a team of junior lawyers.

Built for the appellate stage

Appeals turn on framing. The work starts with the question presented and the standard of review, and builds each brief around the arguments most likely to carry the case.

Tested before it is argued

Xiao founded the En Banc Institute, a national program that prepares advocates through demanding moot panels. The firm brings the same discipline to every argument it handles.

Flexible engagements. The firm can serve as lead counsel, as co-counsel alongside your trial team or litigation firm, or on a targeted basis for strategy, brief review, and moots.

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Representative Experience

Selected matters

These matters were handled by Xiao Wang before he founded Wang Law PLLC, in private practice and as director of law school appellate clinics. They are not matters of the firm. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

U.S. Supreme Court · 2025

Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services

605 U.S. 303 (2025)

Argued for the petitioner in a Title VII case asking whether plaintiffs from majority groups must meet a heightened “background circumstances” standard. The Court unanimously rejected that rule, holding that Title VII’s protections apply equally to every individual.

Title VIIArguedUnanimous for petitioner
U.S. Supreme Court · 2025

Cunningham v. Cornell University

604 U.S. 693 (2025)

Argued for the petitioners, participants in university retirement plans, on what plaintiffs must plead to state a prohibited-transaction claim under ERISA. The Court unanimously held that plaintiffs need not plead around the statute’s exemptions.

ERISAArguedUnanimous for petitioners

Federal courts of appeals

CaseCourtAreaRoleOutcome
Stanard v. Dy88 F.4th 811 (2023) Ninth Circuit Bivens Argued Unanimous decision for appellant
Spillard v. Ivers2023 WL 4992827 (2023) Ninth Circuit Prisoner civil rights Supervised Unanimous decision for appellant
Dickinson v. Cochran833 F. App’x 268 (2020) Eleventh Circuit Qualified immunity BriefedDecided without oral argument Unanimous decision for appellant
Lee v. United States974 F.3d 670 (2020) Sixth Circuit Federal sentencing Argued Decision for appellant
Roberts v. Mars Petcare US, Inc.874 F.3d 953 (2017) Sixth Circuit Class action / complex litigation Argued —

Attorney

Xiao Wang

Portrait of Xiao Wang

Xiao Wang

Founder, Wang Law PLLC

xiao@xwanglaw.com 202-854-8873 Curriculum vitae (PDF)

Xiao Wang is the founder of Wang Law PLLC. His practice centers on the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal courts of appeals, where he has briefed and argued cases involving employment discrimination, ERISA, civil rights, and federal sentencing.

In the Supreme Court’s October 2024 Term, Xiao argued two cases, Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services and Cunningham v. Cornell University, and won both unanimously. He was twice named a Law360 Legal Lion of the Week in 2025, and his cases have been covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and others.

Before founding the firm, Xiao was a litigation associate at Williams & Connolly LLP and Wilkinson Stekloff LLP in Washington, D.C. He clerked for Judge Karen Nelson Moore of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and for Judge Lucy H. Koh, then of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Earlier in his career, he was a business analyst at McKinsey & Company and a policy analyst for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.

Xiao also teaches at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he directs the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, and he founded the En Banc Institute and the National Appellate Clinic Network. His scholarship on federal courts, constitutional law, and law and religion has appeared in the Cornell Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Columbia Law Review, and Vanderbilt Law Review, among others.

Independent practice. Wang Law PLLC is a private law practice. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of the University of Virginia or the University of Virginia School of Law.

Bar admissions

  • District of Columbia
  • California
  • Illinois Inactive
  • Not admitted in Virginia. Practice limited to federal courts.

Court admissions

  • Supreme Court of the United States
  • U.S. Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, D.C., and Federal Circuits
  • U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois, Northern and Central Districts of California, District of Columbia, and Western District of Michigan

Education

  • Yale Law School, J.D. Harry S. Truman Scholar · Coker Teaching Fellow
  • University of Virginia, M.P.P.
  • University of Virginia, B.A., Economics With Highest Distinction · Phi Beta Kappa · Jefferson Scholar

Clerkships

  • Hon. Karen Nelson Moore U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
  • Hon. Lucy H. Koh U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Recognition

  • Law360 Legal Lion of the Week April 2025 (Cunningham) and June 2025 (Ames)
  • Super Lawyers Rising Star, Appellate Litigation 2020 and 2021
  • AALS Harold Berman Award for Excellence in Legal Scholarship 2024
  • Bloomberg Law School Innovation Program Award 2023

Prior experience

  • Wilkinson Stekloff LLP Associate, 2018–2021
  • Williams & Connolly LLP Associate, 2016–2018
  • McKinsey & Company Business Analyst, 2009–2011
  • U.S. Senate Finance Committee Policy Analyst, 2009

Scholarship & Commentary

Writing and speaking

Xiao writes on the Supreme Court, federal courts, constitutional law, and law and religion, for law reviews and general audiences alike.

Selected scholarship

Selected commentary

Selected speaking

  • Title VII and the Supreme CourtPanelist, American University Washington College of Law, Feb. 2026
  • Executive Removal and Federal and State ImplicationsPanelist, Virginia Bar Association, Nov. 2025
  • The Roberts Court at TwentyPanelist, Federalist Society, Sept. 2025
  • The Supreme Court and the WorldLecture series, Universities of Sydney, New South Wales & Adelaide, Sept. 2025
  • Previewing Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth ServicesBloomberg Law “Cases and Controversies” podcast, Feb. 2025
All scholarship on SSRN ORCID Full curriculum vitae (PDF)

Contact

Discuss a matter.

Wang Law PLLC takes on a select number of Supreme Court and appellate engagements. To discuss a potential appeal, co-counsel arrangement, amicus brief, or moot, email or call the firm.

Mailing address
Wang Law PLLC
8401 Mayland Dr. No. 11276
Richmond, VA 23294