Stopping an Order Before It Takes Effect: Stays, Writs, and Interlocutory Review

Michel Paradis, Partner | Steptoe LLP

Michel Paradis is a seasoned litigator with extensive experience in appellate litigation, technology law, and international and national security law. Over a distinguished career spanning more than two decades, he has led numerous high-profile cases across state, federal, and foreign courts, and is recognized as a formidable appellate advocate who has handled every appellate posture—petitions for review, habeas corpus actions, extraordinary writs, and petitions for certiorari. Holding a doctorate from Oxford where he did pioneering work on large language models, Michel brings a rare, dual fluency to the intersection of law and artificial intelligence—translating the law for those focused on the technology, and the technology for those focused on the law.

• Education & Credentials

Michel earned a D.Phil. in Computational Linguistics from the University of Oxford, a J.D. magna cum laude from Fordham University School of Law, and a B.A. cum laude from Fordham University. He was elected to the Order of the Coif. He is admitted in New York and before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Ninth, and D.C. Circuits, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York and the District of Columbia, and the International Criminal Court.

• Recognition & Leadership

Michel is a world-renowned scholar and author whose recognitions include the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Meritorious Unit Award (2021), the Secretary of Defense Global War on Terrorism Medal (2020), and the Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award (2007). He is a Fellow at the Center on National Security, a board member of the National Institute of Military Justice, and a contributing editor at Lawfare. He has been a Lecturer at Columbia Law School since 2014—where his new AI course has drawn media attention—and previously served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching national security law, international law, and constitutional law.

• Professional Involvement

Michel is a member of the New York City Bar’s Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, the American Historical Association, and the American Society of International Law, and serves as Law of Armed Conflict Editor at CAAFlog and Editor-in-Chief of Audio Arguendo. A prolific author and speaker, he has written for outlets including The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Lawfare, and Just Security, and appeared on Netflix, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, and CNBC. He is the author of the critically acclaimed The Light of Battle (HarperCollins 2024), a biography of Dwight Eisenhower, and Last Mission to Tokyo (Simon & Schuster 2020), among other books, and lectures widely at institutions from the Smithsonian to presidential libraries.

• Experience

Michel advises technology companies—from industry giants to innovative startups—and clients across all sectors grappling with the legal risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence, whether in litigation or through jargon-free strategic counsel. He is deeply engaged in the rapidly developing law of AI governance, co-authoring analyses on federal and state AI policy, California’s AI safety legislation, and First Amendment scrutiny of regulations targeting large language models, and regularly speaks on AI’s implications for global security and commercial disputes. For nearly two decades, from 2007 to 2025, he served in the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Military Commissions, giving him firsthand experience at the highest levels of national security and international humanitarian law. His practice at Steptoe spans appeals and advocacy; AI, data and digital; national security and cross-border transactions; and business and human rights.

SESSION 1 – Stopping the Clock: Stays Pending Appeal, Emergency Motions, and the Race to the Circuit | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session gives civil practitioners a working framework for halting an adverse order before it takes effect, from the district court’s automatic stay window through an emergency application to the Circuit Justice. Attorneys will learn how courts actually weight the four Nken factors, when a motion must be made below before a court of appeals will hear it, and how to assemble an irreparable-harm record fast enough to survive the timing objections that defeat most emergency motions. Drawing on his experience litigating emergency and extraordinary relief in the Second, Ninth, and D.C. Circuits, Michel Paradis walks through the drafting, filing, and escalation decisions that determine whether a stay issues. Attendees leave with a filing sequence and a motion checklist they can deploy under deadline pressure in any federal circuit

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – No Final Judgment, No Problem: Mandamus, § 1292(b), and the Routes to Immediate Review | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session maps the paths to appellate review when no final judgment exists and the client cannot wait for one. Attorneys will learn how the Cheney and Bauman standards are actually applied to mandamus petitions, which categories of rulings courts have proven willing to correct by writ, and how to choose among § 1292(b) certification, Rule 23(f), Rule 54(b), and the collateral order doctrine when more than one route is arguably available. Michel Paradis — who won In re Al-Nashiri in the D.C. Circuit, a mandamus petition that vacated five years of proceedings — walks through petition drafting, respondent designation, and the preservation traps that quietly forfeit immediate review. Attendees leave with a route-selection decision tree and a petition checklist usable in any federal circuit.