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Loomis, Alex

Alex H. Loomis

Partner

alexloomis@quinnemanuel.com
Direct Tel: +1 202 538 8393
Boston
Tel: +1 617 712 7100 Fax: +1 617 712 7200

Alex Loomis is a partner in the firm’s Boston office and a member of the firm’s appellate and sovereign litigation practices.  He has extensive experience in international and appellate litigation, especially in litigation involving foreign sovereigns and in foreign judgment and arbitral award enforcement actions and is often called upon to develop and implement enforcement strategies against hard-to-reach targets, especially foreign states.  Loomis has argued appeals before the First, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits and the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and has cross-examined an expert witness in a $100 million trial in Florida state court. 

Recently, Loomis was honored as a “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer for his successful work in designing strategy to seize over $300 million in Argentinian bonds in a Southern District of New York proceeding and in successfully defending the attachment and turnover on appeal in the Second Circuit.  Previously, The American Lawyer interviewed Loomis for his successful appeal and vacatur of a multi-million-dollar judgment against the SEC on novel personal jurisdiction grounds, and he was a “Runner-Up” in The American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week” column for his work in obtaining a precedential First Circuit decision barring a tuition and fee refund class action arising from the COVID-19 pandemic against the University of Rhode Island.  Loomis has also been ranked in The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for Appellate Practice and Commercial Litigation every year from 2023-2025, and was named one of Boston Magazine’s Top Lawyers for Appellate Law in 2024.

Loomis regularly leads dispositive motion and appellate briefing in federal and state courts around the country on a broad range of subject matter, including administrative law, healthcare fraud, patent, antitrust, class actions, and general commercial litigation.  Loomis obtained a first-of-its-kind temporary restraining order forbidding the FDA from demeaning a pharmaceutical compounder’s products.  He also played a critical role in developing the dispositive motion strategy for disposing of class actions filed against five New England universities that sought tuition refunds following the transition to online instruction in Spring 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, obtaining two precedential First Circuit opinions and dismissal of suits against five of his clients.  And he obtained dismissal and affirmance on appeal of a state court false claims action filed against a major pharmaceutical company.  Loomis also maintains an active pro bono practice.

Before joining the firm in 2018, Loomis worked as a clerk to the Honorable Judge Debra Ann Livingston on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  Loomis graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2017, where he won the Sears Prize and was a semifinalist and oralist in the Ames Moot Court competition.  He has published extensively on international and national security law.

  • Boston University
  • Brandeis University
  • Cultural Care, Inc.
  • EF Education First, Inc.
  • Express Scripts, Inc.
  • Gilead Sciences, Inc.
  • Joint Stock Company State Savings Bank of Ukraine
  • MBDA SA
  • SCA Pharmaceuticals, LLC
  • Soitec SA
  • Suffolk University
  • Tufts University
  • University of Rhode Island
  • Obtained reversal, in the First Circuit, a multi-million-dollar judgment obtained by the SEC against a foreign judgment creditor on personal jurisdiction grounds, in an appeal Loomis briefed and argued.
  • Won an approximately $100 million judgment, in a foreign judgment recognition action following a five-day evidentiary hearing, in which Loomis cross-examined an expert witness and wrote the pre-hearing brief and proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law.
  • Obtained affirmance of an order granting summary judgment to Express Scripts, Inc., in a $10 billion breach of contract action brought by Anthem, Inc. in the Second Circuit.
  • Dismissed a $700 million lawsuit filed against MBDA SA and Soitec SA and their officers in the Northern District of California, and led the briefing and appellate argument in the Ninth Circuit for all the French and U.S. appellees in the appeal of that order.
  • Devised dispositive motion strategy resulting in dismissal of suits against Boston University, Brandeis University, Suffolk, University, Tufts University, and the University of Rhode Island seeking tuition refunds following the transition to online instruction in Spring 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, including winning two precedential appeals before the First Circuit for Boston University and the University of Rhode Island.
  • Obtained dismissal, and affirmance of that dismissal, of a New Jersey False Claims Act case brought against Gilead Sciences, Inc. in New Jersey state court.
  • Secured a $17 million attachment in aid of arbitration and confirmation of an arbitral award in the Southern District of New York and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
  • Successfully represented Cairn Energy, PLC in arbitral enforcement proceedings against the Republic of India in the District of Columbia and alter ego proceedings against Air India in the Southern District of New York.
  • Won several pro bono victories, including an emergency stay of a housing court’s eviction order just hours before the eviction was to take place and ultimate reversal of the eviction order; an appeal reversing, on an abuse-of-discretion standard of review, a probate court’s modification and Rule 60 order; a dismissal of a contempt action; and a negotiated $17,000 settlement and complete dismissal of an eviction action.
  • Harvard Law School
  • (J.D., magna cum laude, 2017)
    • Sears Prize, 2016
    • Harvard National Security Journal:
      • Senior Editor
    • Ames Moot Court:
      • Semifinalist, 2016
  • Harvard College
  • (B.A., Philosophy, cum laude, 2012)
  • The State Bar of Massachusetts
  • The District of Columbia Bar
  • United States District Court:
    • District of Massachusetts
    • District of Columbia
    • District of Colorado
  • United States Court of Appeals:
    • D.C. Circuit
    • Federal Circuit
    • First Circuit
    • Second Circuit
    • Fifth Circuit
    • Eighth Circuit
    • Ninth Circuit
    • Tenth Circuit
  • Law Clerk for the Honorable Debra A. Livingston:
    • United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 2017-2018
  • Research Assistant for Graham Allison (Founding Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School)
    • Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, 2012-2014
  • The American Lawyer’s Litigator of the Week, August 30, 2024
  • The American Lawyer’s “Runner-Up” to Litigator of the Week, October 20, 2023
  • Ranked in The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch for Appellate Practice and Commercial Litigation, 2023 - 2025
  • Ranked in Boston Magazine’s Top Lawyers for Appellate Law, 2024
  • Jack Goldsmith & Alex Loomis, “Defend Forward” and Sovereignty, in The United States’ Defend Forward Cyber Strategy: A Comprehensive Legal Assessment (2022).
  • Alex H. Loomis, The Power to Define Offenses Against the Law of Nations, 40 HARVARD JOURNAL OF PUBLIC POLICY 417 (2017).
  • Alex Loomis, Ziglar v. Abbasi: A Summary, Lawfare (June 20, 2017).
  • Alex Loomis, Will the Supreme Court Consider the Risk of Trump's Post-Ruling Tweets?, Lawfare (June 6, 2017).
  • Alex Loomis, Why Are the Lower Courts (Mostly) Ignoring Zivotofsky I's Political Question Analysis?, Lawfare (May 19, 2016).
  • Alex Loomis, Are Top-level Domains Property?, Lawfare (Jan. 5, 2016).
  • Alex Loomis, The Safe Harbor Framework Is Dead, Lawfare (Oct. 6, 2015).
  • Alex Loomis, Is the Safe Harbor Framework in Trouble?, Lawfare (Oct. 1, 2015).
  • Alex Loomis, The New York Times Is Confused About the Law of War Manual, Lawfare (Aug. 12, 2015).