Derek Stikeleather is a partner with Goodell DeVries and Chair of the firm's Appellate Practice Group. 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 product liability, medical malpractice, and class action claims. Derek led the appellate teams that helped overturn the two largest birth-injury verdicts in Maryland history ($229 MM and $55 MM). A dedicated writer, 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 was instrumental in two recent notable Maryland appellate victories. In 2021, through briefing and oral argument, Derek 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. And, in 2020, he helped the Goodell DeVries team that persuaded the Supreme Court of Maryland to formally adopt the Daubert standard for expert testimony in all state-court civil and criminal proceedings and retire the Frye-Reed test. Derek continues to publish regularly on Maryland courts' application of the Daubert standard under Rule 5-702.
As national appellate counsel, Derek works closely with trial counsel across many disciplines before and during trials to brief and argue expert challenges, summary judgment, and other dispositive issues.
