Atticus DeProspo’s practice focuses on complex litigation at the trial and appellate levels. Atticus has represented individuals and corporate clients in high-stakes matters in federal and state courts around the country. Atticus has experience in a broad range of substantive areas, including sports law, administrative law, criminal law, federal statutory interpretation, separation-of-powers questions, First Amendment, state consumer protection laws, antitrust, and contract law. 

Atticus has litigated cases against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, State Attorneys General, the federal government, state governments, and major corporations. Atticus has argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, and the Appellate Court of Maryland. 

Atticus joined Williams & Connolly as an associate in 2021. Before joining the firm, Atticus clerked for Judge Steven J. Menashi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Chief Judge L. Scott Coogler of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Atticus received his B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations with honors, highest distinction, from Cornell University. He was a four-year member of the Cornell Varsity Men’s Soccer Team, where he helped them win the Ivy League Championship in 2012. Atticus interned in Florida and Washington, D.C. for Senator Marco Rubio. He also served as an intern at the Supreme Court of the United States for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Atticus was selected as a member of the inaugural class of the Schwarzman Scholars Program, where he received his M.S. in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University. Atticus was also selected as a Gates-Cambridge Scholar, where he graduated with an M.Phil. in Criminology from the University of Cambridge. He received his J.D. magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from the University of Alabama School of Law, where he served as an editor on the Alabama Law Review. 

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE

Though all cases vary and none is predictive, Atticus’s experience includes:

• Representation and upcoming argument in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit regarding the constitutionality of Section 922(g)(1) after applying the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment analysis in Rahimi v. United States and whether police lacked reasonable suspicion to extend a traffic stop in order to conduct a dog sniff in violation of the Fourth Amendment
• Representation and upcoming argument in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit regarding whether the Board of Immigration Appeals abused its discretion in denying petitioner’s motion to reopen by failing to fully consider petitioner’s evidence of changed country conditions
• Trial counsel for a Fortune 500 biotechnology company in a breach of contract damages bench trial
• Lead mediation counsel for an employee that successfully resulted in a six-figure global settlement for wrongful discharge, retaliation, and discrimination claims
• Successfully argued a Daubert motion to exclude the CFPB’s expert witness on chargeback data in federal district court
• Representation and argument as appointed counsel on behalf of a criminal defendant in the Appellate Court of Maryland regarding whether a criminal defendant waived his right to a jury trial knowingly and voluntarily
• Representation and argument as appointed counsel on behalf of a criminal defendant in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit regarding whether “loss” in § 2B1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines is genuinely ambiguous after applying the U.S. Supreme Court’s step-by-step analysis in Kisor v. Wilkie 
• Representation and argument as appointed counsel on behalf of a criminal defendant in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit regarding whether applying the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act to a criminal defendant’s restitution order as to the liability period or the collection of interest would violate the Ex Post Facto Clause of Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution
• Representation of NFL player and Super Bowl Champion in a contract dispute with his former agent over an endorsement deal in the New York Court of Appeals
• Representation of former NFL coach in a contract dispute with an NFL team before an arbitrator appointed by the NFL Commissioner, which included deposing the NFL team’s Head of Human Resources
• Representation of major accounting firm in an SEC investigation regarding independence rules
• Representation of amicus curiae in the Hawaii Supreme Court involving alleged violations of Hawaii’s Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices law by pharmaceutical companies about warning labels for Plavix
• Representation of inventors and manufacturers of medicines against antitrust, trade secret, and breach of contract claims brought by competitors
• Representation of a major news organization in a lawsuit alleging claims for invasion of privacy, negligence, wantonness, and intentional infliction of emotional distress under Alabama law
• Representation of the two largest credit repair organizations in the United States in a lawsuit filed by the CFPB involving alleged violations of TSR and CFPA relating to credit repair services provided to consumers
• Representation of one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers and its related entities in lawsuits filed by State Attorneys General, cities, counties, and unions in multiple jurisdictions throughout the United States involving alleged violations of RICO, state consumer protection laws as well claims for unjust enrichment and civil conspiracy in connection with insulin pricing