Daniel J. Hay

Daniel’s current and recent trial representations include: 

• Lead counsel to a national trade association in an APA challenge to purported guidance that imposes new substantive obligations on the client’s members.
• Representing a major multinational technology company indicted in federal court on charges of racketeering, trade secret theft, bank fraud, and other alleged offenses.
• Representing a global pharmaceutical manufacturer in a multifaceted Lanham Act case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
• Obtained a writ of mandamus quashing a state trial court’s order requiring Sidley’s client to produce a privileged and highly confidential report of an outside counsel investigation.
• Successfully represented a Luxembourg-based holding company in obtaining dismissal of a multi-billion-dollar fraud and breach of contract complaint in the New York Supreme Court, Commercial Division.

Daniel has also authored or co-authored briefs on behalf of clients in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state courts of appeals. Daniel’s recent appellate victories include:

• Rios v. Bayer Corp., — N.E.3d — (Ill. 2020), which held that a state court lacks personal jurisdiction over products liability claims brought by plaintiffs who neither reside in nor allege to have been injured in the forum state.
• United States of America v. AT&T, 916 F.3d 1029 (D.C. Cir. 2019), which unanimously affirmed the district court’s order approving AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner. The Wall Street Journal described this decision as “cement[ing] one of the biggest losses for the Justice Department’s antitrust division in a generation.”
• National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. v. N.Y. State Department of Environmental Conservation, 761 F. App’x 68 (2d Cir. 2019), which vacated an agency decision denying our client a Clean Water Act permit to construct a natural gas pipeline. Law360 awarded the Sidley team its “Legal Lion of the Week” title for this victory.
• Amicus counsel to the American Gaming Association in Murphy v. NCAA, 138 S. Ct. 1461 (2018), which struck down a federal law that prohibited states from making their own policy on whether to regulate sports betting.
• Microsoft Corp. v. Parallel Networks Licensing, LLC, 715 F. App’x 1013 (Fed. Cir. 2017), which vacated an inter partes review decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Daniel maintains an active pro bono practice on behalf of nonprofits, religious organizations, civil rights plaintiffs, and prisoners. Daniel’s recent pro bono victories include:

• Obtaining compassionate release on behalf of a federal prisoner whose underlying health conditions placed him at serious risk of death from COVID-19.
• As court-appointed counsel, convincing the Sixth Circuit to reinstate a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging a violation of a prisoner’s religious liberties.
• Securing a jury award of compensatory and punitive damages in a federal civil rights case alleging unconstitutionally excessive force in effecting arrest.

Daniel serves as a member and secretary of the board of directors of the Hemophilia Association of the Capital Area. Daniel is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches a course on civil discovery in federal courts.