John R. Wester Recognized by Benchmark Appellate

John R. Wester, a partner with Robinson Bradshaw, has been selected for the inaugural edition of Benchmark Appellate, a definitive new reference guide recognizing the nation’s top appeals litigation firms and their attorneys. Wester is one of two Charlotte attorneys and one of 10 North Carolina lawyers identified as “Local Litigation Stars” in the first annual rankings.

Robinson Bradshaw is one of four “Recommended” firms in North Carolina included in Benchmark Appellate.

Benchmark publishes a series of definitive reference guides that recognize the top U.S. litigation firms and their attorneys in a variety of disciplines each year. Ten Robinson Bradshaw attorneys, including Wester, were also included in the fifth annual edition of Benchmark Litigation, released in November 2011.

Two of Wester’s cases have reached the U.S. Supreme Court, including his successful defense as lead counsel for Ford Motor Co. in Ford Motor v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, establishing national precedent for terminating employer damages in discrimination cases. In the class action suit, Hyatt v. Heckler, a case Robinson Bradshaw took as pro bono publico counsel, rulings by the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts granted the right to new hearings for some 150,000 North Carolinians to secure disability payments unlawfully denied by the federal government.

Wester has extensive experience in the U.S. Court of Appeals, the North Carolina Supreme Court and the North Carolina Court of Appeals, arguing business disputes, corporate governance, securities regulation, ERISA and constitutional issues. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and served as president of the North Carolina Bar Association in 2009-10.

A Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina, Wester graduated with high honors from Duke Law School, where he was Note and Comment Editor of the Duke Law Journal.