What Gupta Wessler does

Gupta Wessler LLP is a privately held plaintiff-side appellate and complex litigation boutique founded in 2012 by Deepak Gupta, the former first appellate lawyer at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The firm practices in three defined service areas — Supreme Court Practice, Appellate Practice, and Constitutional & Complex Litigation — and also operates the Harvard Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, which doubles as a talent pipeline. Its lawyers have argued 33 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court with a 77.8% win rate over the past five terms (71.4% over the past two terms with seven arguments), and it is consistently ranked as a top-tier appellate outfit by Chambers, Law360, and The National Law Journal.

The firm's client base is almost entirely on the plaintiff and public interest side of the docket: individual consumers and workers, class action plaintiffs, advocacy organizations, labor unions, and pro-consumer groups, often in opposition to large corporate defendants or federal agencies. Representative matters include the $125 million PACER fee settlement, challenges to Trump-administration layoffs at the CFPB and NLRB, the reinstated $185 million Monsanto PCB verdict, an $83 million verdict against Celsius, and class actions against Uber on sexual assault claims. The firm is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in San Francisco (opened 2020 under principal Jennifer Bennett) and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and currently has roughly 12-15 attorneys including five principals.

Go-to-market is entirely reputation- and referral-driven: leading trial lawyers nationwide retain the firm as appellate co-counsel for their highest-stakes matters. Revenue is generated through professional services fees (hourly, contingency, or alternative fee arrangements depending on the matter), and pricing is not publicly disclosed. The firm is wholly owned by its five principals — Deepak Gupta, Matthew Wessler, Jonathan Taylor, Jennifer Bennett, and Matt Guarnieri — with no external investment, parent company, or subsidiaries, and has been recognized as a top D.C. boutique and a top-ten litigation boutique nationally by Vault.

Name

Gupta Wessler

Legal name

Gupta Wessler LLP

Website

https://guptawessler.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Gupta Wessler LLP is a privately held plaintiff-side appellate and complex litigation boutique that argues high-stakes cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state courts for plaintiffs, consumers, workers, and public interest organizations. The firm, founded in 2012 and based in Washington, D.C., also runs the Harvard Supreme Court Litigation Clinic.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Appellate Legal Services

NAICS

Offices of Lawyers (54111), Legal Services (5411)

SIC

Services-Legal Services (8111)

akta.pro primary industry

Litigation & Dispute Resolution (BPAHAAAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Personal Injury & Insurance Defense (BPAHAAAM)

Keywords

• Appellate litigation
• Supreme court practice
• Constitutional litigation
• Class action appeals
• Complex civil litigation

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel

Revenue model

1. Legal Services - Appellate Litigation: The firm provides high-stakes appellate and complex litigation services, handling Supreme Court arguments, appellate practice, and constitutional and complex litigation for plaintiffs and public interest clients. Revenue comes from legal fees for services rendered to clients including individual plaintiffs, class action clients, and advocacy organizations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Gupta Wessler LLP is a plaintiff-side appellate and complex litigation boutique providing legal representation before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal and state appellate courts, and in constitutional/complex litigation matters. The firm represents individual plaintiffs, class action clients, advocacy organizations, and trial lawyers seeking appellate expertise, with a focus on consumer rights, workers' rights, civil rights, and public interest cases. The firm also operates the Harvard Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, where partners teach law students hands-on Supreme Court practice.

Product overview

Gupta Wessler LLP is a plaintiff-side appellate and complex litigation boutique offering legal services rather than technology products. The firm operates three core legal service lines: Supreme Court Practice (high-stakes litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court), Appellate Practice (state and federal court appeals including class action and MDL defense), and Constitutional and Complex Litigation (class actions, regulatory challenges, and civil rights matters). The firm also runs the Harvard Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, which combines legal services with legal education. These services are provided through offices in Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Supreme Court Practice Appellate litigation representation before the U.S. Supreme Court, including oral arguments, certiorari petitions, and merits briefing on behalf of plaintiffs and public interest clients. The firm has argued 33 Supreme Court cases with a 77.8% win rate over the past five terms.
• Appellate Practice High-stakes appellate representation in state and federal courts, including defense of jury verdicts and appeals in class actions, multidistrict litigation, and individual cases. Top trial lawyers nationwide entrust the firm to defend the nation's largest jury verdicts and the highest-stakes appeals.
• Constitutional & Complex Litigation Class action design and prosecution, constitutional and regulatory challenges, consumer and worker rights litigation, and civil rights matters, including consulting on litigation strategy. Covers economic justice, civil rights, administrative law, and constitutional issues.
• Harvard Supreme Court Litigation Clinic A law school clinic operated by the firm in partnership with Harvard Law School, where students work on Supreme Court cases under partner supervision, providing hands-on appellate litigation training and serving as a firm talent pipeline.

Quantifiable outcome

• 77.8% Supreme Court win rate over past five terms
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Harvard Law SchoolcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021The firm runs the Harvard Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Harvard Law School. Partners began teaching the clinic in 2021, providing law students with hands-on experience in Supreme Court litigation. This partnership provides talent pipeline and enhances the firm's academic credentials.
• Maryland Legal AidminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Maryland Legal Aid to challenge Baltimore's unconstitutional system for conducting tax-sale auctions that strip wealth from low-income residents. Awarded Herbert S. Garten Special Project Award for this work.
• Everytown LawminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with Everytown Law to challenge a West Virginia law affecting domestic violence shelters. Represents advocacy organizations in constitutional and regulatory challenges.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Motley Rice LLC: Major plaintiff-side complex litigation firm with significant appellate and class action practice. Comparable as a sophisticated plaintiff-side firm handling high-stakes appeals and large verdicts, though broader in scope than Gupta Wessler's boutique focus.
• Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC: Large plaintiff-side litigation firm with deep appellate capabilities in class actions, consumer protection, and civil rights. A broader incumbent that competes with Gupta Wessler for plaintiff-side appellate mandates, especially in class action appeals.
• Berger Montague PC: Plaintiff-side class action and complex litigation firm with active appellate practice. Overlaps with Gupta Wessler on class action appeals, consumer protection, and antitrust matters, though larger and broader in service offerings.
• Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein: National plaintiff-side firm handling class actions, mass torts, and appellate litigation. Comparable on consumer protection and class action appellate work, with similar elite firm positioning though broader practice footprint.
• Constantine Cannon LLP: Plaintiff-side antitrust and complex litigation boutique with appellate capabilities. Similar boutique structure focused on plaintiff-side representation, with overlap in appellate advocacy for class actions.
• Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP: Plaintiff-side securities class action and complex litigation boutique. Comparable in boutique scale and appellate intensity, particularly around class action certification appeals and securities litigation.

Direct peers

• Relman Colfax PLLC: Plaintiff-side civil rights and appellate boutique based in Washington, DC. It shares Gupta Wessler's plaintiff-side focus on constitutional and civil rights appellate work, and former principal Robert Friedman joined Gupta Wessler from Relman.
• Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC: Elite appellate boutique focused on Supreme Court and constitutional litigation. While ideologically opposite to Gupta Wessler (conservative vs. plaintiff-side), it is structurally comparable as a small SCOTUS-focused boutique with similar reputation and high argument counts.
• Public Justice: National plaintiff-side public interest law firm focused on appellate and impact litigation. Multiple Gupta Wessler principals (Wessler, Bennett, Kieschnick) came directly from Public Justice, making it the closest institutional peer in mission and practice mix.

Emerging players

• American Civil Liberties Union Foundation: Public interest legal organization that regularly appears before the Supreme Court on civil rights matters. Comparable in plaintiff-side appellate and constitutional litigation work, though structured as a nonprofit rather than a private firm.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/guptawessler
• Xx.com/GuptaWessler
• Facebookfacebook.com/guptalaw

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Gupta Wessler