As a judicial clerk to District of Columbia Court of Appeals Judge John A. Terry, who had previously served as Chief of the Appellate Division of the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Attorney Hennessey gained an apprentice’s disciplined understanding of effective written and oral advocacy.
Hennessey has applied that knowledge in appeals taken to the Maryland Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and his “home” forum, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Hennessey’s victory in this appeal exemplified the results delivered by his command of the facts and law. The case arose in war-torn Afghanistan. Representing an Afghanistan-based contractor, Hennessey was adverse to the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and the Department of Justice.
Notwithstanding these formidable adversaries, Hennessey secured a victory for his client. The Federal Circuit’s opinion so emphatically rejected the government’s position that it forced the United States Army Corps of Engineers to settle the dispute on terms favorable to his client.