Derek Stikeleather chairs the Appellate Practice Group at Goodell DeVries. He practices primarily in appellate advocacy and complex litigation, often as national appellate counsel for clients responding to nuclear verdicts. Derek has vast experience in commercial disputes and defending medical malpractice, product liability, and class action claims.
Derek is currently leading the multi-firm appellate team challenging a $261 million verdict against a Florida children's hospital. The high-profile case was featured in the Netflix movie 'Take Care of Maya.' It is the second time that Derek has challenged a final judgment that exceeds $200 million. In 2021, Derek's briefing and oral argument persuaded the Appellate Court of Maryland to overturn a $205 million final judgment — the largest birth-injury award in U.S. history — and order JNOV for the defendant hospital. Derek was also instrumental in helping the same court to vacate the 2012 judgment that followed a $55 million verdict against a Maryland hospital. These remain the two largest birth-injury verdicts in Maryland history.
As national appellate counsel, Derek works closely with trial counsel across many disciplines not only on appeals but also before and during trials to brief and argue expert challenges, summary judgment, and other dispositive issues. A dedicated writer, Derek fundamentally believes that excellent briefing wins cases. In recent years, Derek has assisted with reducing a $110 million Minnesota verdict to $10 million, post-trial briefing on a $68 million New Mexico verdict, appeals of eight-figure judgments in Connecticut and Florida, and pre-trial expert challenges in Ohio and South Carolina. He has briefed and argued appeals on behalf of physicians and several prominent hospitals before the appellate courts of Maryland and the District of Columbia and in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Derek has also successfully argued class action and commercial appeals in the California Court of Appeal, New York's Appellate Division (First Department), and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Derek has a robust Maryland practice. He helped the Goodell DeVries team that persuaded the Supreme Court of Maryland, in 2020, to formally adopt the Daubert standard for expert testimony in all state-court civil and criminal proceedings and retire the Frye-Reed test. As an editor of the Maryland Appellate Blog and co-Chair of the MSBA's Appellate Practice Committee, Derek continues to publish regularly on Maryland courts' application of the Daubert standard under Rule 5-702. Derek is also a member of the Cole-Davidson Inn of Court, Maryland's only appellate Inn of Court.
Derek's efforts have earned him a Tier I rating from Chambers USA (its highest rating) for Maryland appellate lawyers. In 2024, Best Lawyers in America named him Baltimore's Lawyer of the Year for appellate practice.
