Overview
As one of the Firm’s deputy general counsel, Joshua Rogaczewski focuses his practice on advising McDermott on professional-responsibility, loss-prevention and other compliance-related issues.
Joshua advises the Firm and its professionals in connection with the client-intake process, as issues arise in the course of matters, when and after matters end, and when professionals join or leave the firm. He works with the Firm’s New Business Committee, Client Intake Services, Information Governance, Human Resources, and other departments to minimize McDermott’s risk. Joshua chairs the Firm’s Professional Responsibility Committee.
In addition to providing in-house training and guidance to the Firm’s professionals, Joshua manages claims against the Firm and the Firm’s responses to subpoenas for documents and testimony of McDermott’s professionals. He also assists in the Firm’s diverse day-to-day compliance efforts.
Prior to joining the General Counsel’s Office, Joshua was a member of the Firm’s Litigation Practice Group, focusing on complex civil litigation in a variety of substantive areas, including retirement-benefit disputes under ERISA and the Labor–Management Relations Act of 1947; challenges to program accessibility under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; trademark disputes; patent-infringement disputes, including those before the U.S. International Trade Commission; challenges to government action under the Administrative Procedures Act; and the False Claims Act. He has experience in both jury and nonjury trials. At the appellate level, Joshua has substantial experience briefing cases for appeal, has argued appeals, and has litigated issues before the Supreme Court.
Joshua current serves as a hearing-committee member for the DC Board of Professional Responsibility, which adjudicates lawyer-misconduct matters for the DC Bar.
Results
- Defended several farm-, construction- and automotive-equipment manufacturers in ERISA and LMRA class action litigation by unionized retirees—often in the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which had developed a retiree-friendly jurisprudence—seeking to prevent changes to health care benefits the retirees allege to be vested, and helping to produce a new way of thinking about vested benefits in the Sixth Circuit (vested but subject to reasonable changes) and a Supreme Court decision setting a nationwide standard for such cases
- Represented a local civil rights organization in its attempts to make a local government program reasonably accessible to persons with disabilities in accordance with Title II of the American Disabilities Act of 1990, and its examination of program licensees’ compliance with the accessibility standards under Title III
- Represented a former government employee against an agency for discrimination and retaliation under the Rehabilitation Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 before the district court and the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- Defended a foreign consumer-electronics manufacturer from attempts to exclude its products from the American marketplace for allegedly infringing the intellectual property of domestic patent holders
- Represented a pharmaceutical company in a dispute with the federal government regarding the company’s obligation to report sales data because of its participation in the Medicare program
- Represented a government contractor in a bid-protest proceeding before the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Defended several clients that have been haled into Virginia state court (and were unable to remove) against claims of breach of contract, fraud and other statutory unfair-trade-practices violations
- Represented clients that have been required to invoke the jurisdiction of Virginia state courts because of contractual provisions or the unavailability of a federal forum
- Advised multiple clients on issues associated with directors and officers insurance policies and advised several clients on issues associated with placing tax liability insurance policies
- Represented special-purpose captive insurance company, formed for litigation arising out of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, in a variety of matters including claims-handling advice, procurement advice, regulatory requirements, insurance-coverage litigation, and appellate litigation
Recognitions
- Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, 2011 Outstanding Achievement Award
Community
- DC Board of Professional Responsibility, Hearing Committee
- DC Bar Foundation, Young Lawyers Network Leadership Council, inaugural member
Credentials
Education
Georgetown University Law Center, JD, cum laude, 2003
Harvard College, AB, magna cum laude, 1997
Admissions
District of Columbia
Virginia
Courts / Agencies
Supreme Court of the United States
US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
US District Court for the District of Columbia
US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
US District Court for the Western District of Michigan
US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
US District Court for the Western District of Virginia
US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
