Overview
Josh Podoll’s practice focuses on complex civil litigation and government investigations. He has represented clients in bench and jury trials across the country—from back-to-back-to-back antitrust trials in Oregon, Washington State, and Colorado against state and federal regulators; to jury trials in Illinois and New York federal court against private and government plaintiffs pursuing high-stakes claims under the False Claims Act; to a five-month trial in Washington State Court representing a pharmaceutical distributor against the State Attorney General in a public-nuisance case involving opioids; to an RMBS trial in New York City, where he represented a multi-national financial institution in a fraud case brought by a bond insurer.
Josh also has developed significant experience guiding clients through complex, multi-jurisdiction litigation, including cases formally consolidated through the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, state-court litigation proceedings alongside an active multidistrict proceeding, and informally coordinated litigation moving forward on parallel tracks.
Josh also has had significant success in the appellate courts. In 2024 and 2025, he argued and won appeals in the First, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits. He also has represented clients in the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal Courts of Appeal, and state appellate courts at every level.
In addition to his litigation practice, Josh represents clients from a range of industries in investigations by State Attorneys General and by the United States Government. And he conducts internal investigations on sensitive, high-impact issues.
Josh has experience with a range of substantive areas of law, including healthcare, financial services, and securities. He frequently engages with State Attorneys General and Federal prosecutors, whether as opposing counsel in litigation or as counsel for a company or an individual in an investigation.
Josh actively gives back to the community and regularly handles or supervises pro bono matters. In 2023, Josh represented a former prisoner in a pro bono case before the U.S. Supreme Court in Dupree v. Younger, which presented the question whether purely legal issues decided at the summary judgment stage must be raised in post-trial motions to be preserved for appeal. Also, in 2023, Josh supervised an associate on a pro bono appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit concerning the application of Tennessee’s Slayer Statute in the ERISA context. He has been included on the Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll on a consistent basis over the last decade.
Josh’s practice has been recognized by legal publications. Josh was named a 2025 Law360 Rising Star. In 2024, 2025, and 2026 he was named to Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under list.
Josh was elected to the firm’s partnership on January 1, 2021. Before joining Williams & Connolly, Josh graduated from Cornell University, summa cum laude, in 2008 with a double major in Classical Civilization and Comparative Literature. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2011, where he helped to found—and later was Editor in Chief of—The Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law. Josh clerked for Judge Danny J. Boggs of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.