People
Val Leppert is an appellate lawyer in King & Spalding’s Miami office. Besides briefing and arguing appeals, Val often provides strategic advice to trial teams and handles legal arguments in high-stakes product liability trials, including in the most plaintiff-friendly venues in the country. Val has worked on a variety of legal questions, such as federal preemption, excessive compensatory and punitive damages, attorney’s fees in class actions, the nonparty fault defense, Daubert challenges to expert testimony, the jury-selection process, and the scope of permissible closing arguments. He frequently develops new and creative arguments and has achieved a number of significant victories—including dismissal of his clients before trial in some cases, favorable evidentiary rulings and jury instructions during trial in others, and reversal of large judgments after trial in several appeals that have set favorable precedent for future litigation.
Val served as law clerk to the Honorable Frank M. Hull, United States Circuit Judge for the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He graduated, magna cum laude, from Mercer University School of Law where he received the George W. Woodruff Award of Excellence as the top-ranked student in his class. While in law school, Val served as Articles Editor of the Mercer Law Review and as Research Assistant to Professor Harold S. Lewis, Jr. While in college, he was named the 2004 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference South Most Valuable Player on Offense after quarterbacking the Blue Jays to consecutive football conference championships.
Val is a native of Frankfurt, Germany, and is fluent in German.
J.D., Mercer University, magna cum laude
B.A., Westminster College
Court of Appeals of Georgia
Florida
Georgia
Supreme Court of Georgia
Supreme Court of the United States
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Law Clerk, Frank M. Hull, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Florida
Georgia
German
January 15, 2021
R.J. Reynolds Obtains Reversal of $15.5M Judgment
October 11, 2018
R.J. Reynolds Trial Team Wins Engle-Progeny Case Based on Statute of Limitations
Representative Appellate Work
Co-authored petition for stay in Philip Morris USA Inc. v. Scott, 131 S. Ct. 1 (2010) (Scalia, J., in chambers) (granting stay of state court judgment in product-liability class action)
Authored brief for appellee in Toole v. Georgia-Pacific, LLC, 2011 WL 7938847 (Ga. App. Jan 19, 2011) (affirming defense verdict in mesothelioma trial)
See more
January 15, 2021
R.J. Reynolds Obtains Reversal of $15.5M Judgment
October 11, 2018
R.J. Reynolds Trial Team Wins Engle-Progeny Case Based on Statute of Limitations
Representative Appellate Work
Co-authored petition for stay in Philip Morris USA Inc. v. Scott, 131 S. Ct. 1 (2010) (Scalia, J., in chambers) (granting stay of state court judgment in product-liability class action)
Authored brief for appellee in Toole v. Georgia-Pacific, LLC, 2011 WL 7938847 (Ga. App. Jan 19, 2011) (affirming defense verdict in mesothelioma trial)
See more
January 15, 2021
R.J. Reynolds Obtains Reversal of $15.5M Judgment
October 11, 2018
R.J. Reynolds Trial Team Wins Engle-Progeny Case Based on Statute of Limitations
J.D., Mercer University, magna cum laude
B.A., Westminster College
Court of Appeals of Georgia
Florida
Georgia
Supreme Court of Georgia
Supreme Court of the United States
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Law Clerk, Frank M. Hull, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Florida
Georgia
German