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Ryan Park

Ryan Y. Park Partner

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Raleigh T +1 919 755 6566 F fax +1 919 835 5946
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Ryan is a member of McGuireWoods’ Appeals and Issues Practice Group with extensive experience in appellate strategy, constitutional law and complex litigation. He has argued more than 30 appeals in state and federal appellate courts, including multiple times before the U.S. Supreme Court and nine times before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Ryan focuses his practice on assisting clients navigate high stakes appeals and other complex legal disputes.

Before joining McGuireWoods, Ryan served as Solicitor General of North Carolina for more than five years, where he oversaw the state’s appellate litigation and served as lead counsel in its most significant cases. He earlier served as North Carolina’s Deputy Solicitor General, practiced appellate and complex litigation at a national law firm, and worked as an attorney-adviser specializing in international property law at the U.S. Department of State.

Ryan clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and previously for Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Ryan graduated summa cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was co-editor-in-chief of the Harvard International Law Journal. He holds a B.A. with distinction in economics and political science from Amherst College, where he was a three-term student government president and received the Wyman Medal, the college’s highest honor for scholarship and service.

He taught state constitutional law at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law and appellate practice at Duke University School of Law. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and serves on the rules advisory committees for both the Fourth Circuit and North Carolina appellate courts. He also has written on law and society for national publications including the Atlantic, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Experience

  • Represented state officials in both the U.S. Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit, securing unanimous rulings from both courts invalidating a federal intellectual property statute. *
  • Represented a public university in the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of its admissions policies. *
  • Successfully represented state agency in several high-profile tax appeals, including a closely watched sales-and-use tax case in the state’s highest court and opposing U.S. Supreme Court review. *
  • Represented state agency in a significant class action appeal, vacating summary judgment in a case involving over 700,000 employees and billions in potential financial liability. *
  • Represented state in jurisdictional challenges under the Due Process Clause, including defending environmental enforcement actions related to chemical contamination. *
  • Represented state in a dormant commerce clause challenge, successfully defending its alcohol regulatory framework in the Fourth Circuit and opposing Supreme Court review. *
  • Led large, bipartisan groups of states in several high-profile disputes, including a multi-billion-dollar appeal at the intersection of bankruptcy and mass-torts and multiple Supreme Court cases involving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
  • Successfully defended a state’s anti-patent troll law and led a bipartisan coalition of 27 states in defending similar patent-focused laws in the Federal Circuit. *
  • Represented state agency in defense of a high-value medical malpractice claim, leading the trial team through discovery, motion practice and a favorable settlement. *
  • Served as motions attorney for a technology company in billion-dollar antitrust trial, helping secure a complete defense verdict. *
  • Represented multiple large technology and retail companies in securing dismissals of class-action complaints on the pleadings or on summary judgment. *

* Denotes work done prior to joining McGuireWoods.

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