Deepak Gupta
202.888.1741 | 2001 K Street, NW, Suite 850 North, Washington, DC 20006
Deepak Gupta is the founding principal of Gupta Wessler LLP and a Lecturer at Harvard Law School, where he teaches the Harvard Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.
Over more than two decades, Deepak has led high‑stakes litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court, all thirteen federal circuits, and numerous state supreme courts, with a focus on ensuring access to justice for consumers, workers, investors, and communities injured by corporate or governmental wrongdoing. He has also testified before the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court.
Deepak is widely recognized as a leading appellate advocate for plaintiffs. Trial lawyers across the country enlist him to defend their most consequential victories or revive worthy claims on appeal—including some of the nation’s largest jury verdicts. He has worked with a wide range of clients and co‑counsel, including leading plaintiffs’ firms, nonprofits, labor unions, state and local governments, public officials from governors and attorneys general to federal judges and members of Congress, and distinguished artists, scientists, and athletes.
Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy
In 2025, the National Law Journal observed that Deepak “has steadily become a mainstay of the Supreme Court lectern and the go-to advocate for consumers and other plaintiffs with cases before the justices.”
Deepak founded Gupta Wessler in 2012 to serve as a counterweight to the corporate dominance of the Supreme Court and appellate bar. Over the past decade, the firm has established itself as the nation’s premier plaintiff-side appellate firm, with an unmatched record of wins in the U.S. Supreme Court and in state and federal courts nationwide.
Over the past two terms alone, the firm had seven oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, presented by all four of the firm’s principals. Only four other law firms–all large corporate defense firms–had as many arguments. Gupta Wessler had the highest win rate (71%) of any firm in that elite group. All told, the firm’s lawyers have argued more than thirty U.S. Supreme Court cases. Highlights include:
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In the 2024-2025 term, the firm had four arguments before the Court. Deepak presented three of those arguments and achieved the rare feat of securing two post-argument dismissals for respondents—in Labcorp v. Davis (on class certification and standing) and NVIDIA v. Ohman (on pleading standards for securities fraud).
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In the 2023-24 term, the firm had three arguments before the Court, winning two–including unanimously defeating sweeping federal preemption of state consumer law in Cantero v. Bank of America.
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Deepak argued and won a landmark victory for access to justice in Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District, in which the Court ruled that people injured by mass-market products can establish personal jurisdiction to sue corporations where their injury occurred, bucking a decades-long trend of jurisdiction-limiting jurisprudence.
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In Smith v. Berryhill, Deepak argued at the Court’s invitation in support of a judgment left undefended by the Solicitor General. He is the first Asian-American to be appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court to argue a case.
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In 2017, Deepak prevailed in Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman, successfully arguing a First Amendment challenge to a law designed to keep consumers in the dark about the cost of credit cards.
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Deepak argued AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, a watershed case on corporations’ use of forced arbitration to prevent consumers and workers from banding together to seek justice.
Defending the Nation’s Largest Verdicts on Appeal
Deepak is consistently entrusted by the nation’s top trial lawyers to defend their most significant victories. In 2025, for example, Deepak successfully persuaded the Washington Supreme Court to reinstate a landmark nine-figure verdict against Monsanto, protecting a total of $1.6 billion in verdicts for schoolteachers and students injured by exposure to PCB “forever” chemicals.
Deepak also recently secured the Nevada Supreme Court’s affirmance of a $200-million bad-faith verdict against UnitedHealthcare for failing to provide necessary lifesaving cancer treatment, as well as a partial affirmance in the Florida Supreme Court of an $83 million verdict on behalf of musician Flo Rida against energy-drink maker Celsius.
Deepak is currently defending nine-figure and eight-figure verdicts on appeal in several states, including a $360-million jury verdict in favor of three girls who were sexually abused by the medical director of a for-profit in Virginia; a $114-million verdict against USAA in Nevada; and a $90 million verdict against Liberty Mutual in Massachusetts.
Class Actions, Constitutional Litigation, and Civil Justice Policy
In a small number of select cases, Deepak also designs and prosecutes class actions and high-profile constitutional challenges from the ground up. Highlights include:
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Constitutional and administrative law: Deepak is currently representing Gwynne Wilcox in her challenge to President Trump’s unprecedented attempt to remove her from the National Labor Relations Board (Wilcox v. Trump) and several plaintiffs seeking to prevent the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (National Treasury Employees Union et al v. Vought). In both cases, Deepak and his colleagues secured injunctions against the Trump Administration’s unlawful actions and are in the process of defending those injunctions on appeal.
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In the first Trump Administration, Deepak persuaded the D.C. Circuit to issue a rare injunction halting the government takeover of an internet-freedom nonprofit (Open Technology Fund v. Pack). He also represented environmental groups in a successful challenge to a midnight rule that would have crippled the ability of incoming EPA leadership to rely on science in setting public-health standards (Environmental Defense Fund v. EPA) and the Governor of Montana in a case establishing that the Bureau of Land Management’s Acting Director had been serving for 424 days in violation of the Appointments Clause (Bullock v. BLM). He was also lead counsel for the plaintiffs in CREW v. Trump, a challenge under the Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses to President Trump’s unprecedented financial conflicts of interest.
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Civil justice policy: Deepak serves as outside counsel to the American Association for Justice in the Supreme Court and on issues of law and policy before Congress and agencies, including on arbitration and preemption matters, and serves as counsel to several state trial lawyer associations on threats to civil justice–including those currently spearheaded by Uber. In Nevada, for example, Deepak recently defeated Uber’s proposed initiative to cap attorneys’ fees in all civil cases at 20%, winning a Nevada Supreme Court decision striking the proposal from the ballot in Uber Sexual Assault Survivors for Legal Accountability v. Uber. In California, he successfully represented the First Amendment rights of Consumer Attorneys of California (COAC), defeating Uber’s attempt to enjoin CAOC’s political advertising. He is also handling constitutional challenges to damages caps in multiple state supreme courts.
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Class actions: Deepak is lead counsel in a nationwide class action in which he persuaded the Federal Circuit that the federal judiciary has been charging people millions of dollars in unlawful fees for online access to court records. The case recently culminated in a $125 million settlement that reimburses the majority of PACER users 100 cents on the dollar. Deepak previously served as lead counsel for all of the nation’s bankruptcy judges, recovering $56 million for Congress’s violation of the Judicial Compensation Clause. The American Lawyer observed: “it’s hard to imagine a higher compliment than being hired to represent federal judges.”
Recognition
In 2025, Law360 named Deepak “Appellate MVP of the Year.” He is “known as a skilled appellate lawyer” (New York Times) and “an all-star progressive Supreme Court litigator” (Washington Post). He’s been described as “one of the emerging giants of the appellate and the Supreme Court bar,” a “heavy hitter,” a “principled” and “incredibly talented lawyer” (Law 360), and a “progressive legal rock star.” (New York Law Journal). Chambers USA cites his “impressive” and “highly rated appellate practice,” describing him as “an incredible oral advocate” who “writes terrific briefs” and maintains a “vibrant appellate practice focused on public interest cases and plaintiff-side representations.” Deepak is consistently ranked as one of the “Best Lawyers” for Supreme Court cases by Washingtonian magazine; he is the only non-corporate lawyer on that list.
Deepak’s Supreme Court and appellate advocacy has been recognized with several awards, including the 2025 Consumer Advocate of the Year Award from the Nevada Justice Association, the 2025 Special Recognition Award from Consumer Action, recognizing him as a “Consumer Changemaker,” the 2022 Appellate Advocacy Award from the National Civil Justice Institute (for “excellence in appellate advocacy in America”), the 2021 Steven J. Sharpe Award for Public Service from the American Association for Justice, and the President’s Award from the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges.
Career Background
Before founding Gupta Wessler in 2012, Deepak was Senior Counsel at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where, as the first appellate litigator hired under Elizabeth Warren’s leadership, he launched the agency’s amicus program and worked with the Solicitor General’s office on Supreme Court cases. Previously, he spent seven years at Public Citizen Litigation Group, where he founded the Consumer Justice Project and served as the Alan Morrison Supreme Court Assistance Project Fellow. He also worked on voting rights at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice; prisoners’ rights at the ACLU’s National Prison Project; and religious freedom at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He clerked for Judge Lawrence K. Karlton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California and studied law at Georgetown, Sanskrit at Oxford, and philosophy at Fordham.
Institutional Leadership
Deepak is a member of the American Law Institute and the Administrative Conference of the United States and sits on the boards of the National Consumer Law Center, the Alliance for Justice, the National Plaintiffs Law Association, the Open Markets Institute, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the People’s Parity Project, the Civil Justice Research Initiative at UC Berkeley, and the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies. He is a member of the legal affairs committee of the American Association for Justice and the class action preservation committee of Public Justice. He also serves as a judge of the American Constitution Society’s Annual Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Regulatory and Administrative Law.
Publications and Media Appearances
Deepak’s publications include Arbitration as Wealth Transfer, 5 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 499 (2017) (with Lina Khan), Leveling the Playing Field on Appeal: The Case for a Plaintiff-Side Appellate Bar, 54 Duq. L. Rev. 383 (2016), and The Consumer Protection Bureau and the Constitution, 65 Admin L. Rev. 945 (2013), as well as shorter pieces for The New York Times, SCOTUSblog, and Trial magazine. Deepak is regularly quoted on the Supreme Court in publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post and has appeared in broadcast media including MSNBC, CNN FOX News, ABC’s World News and Good Morning America, and NPR’s All Things Considered and Marketplace.
