Multiple services annually rank law firms along several dimensions and according to various measures. Even with these rankings there is little objective gauge of a firm’s quality and rightfully so. There are many aspects that go into a firm’s relative quality and some are easier to gauge than others. One thing that these rankings almost…
Tag: Gibson Dunn
First-Timers in the Court
In recent years, a lot has been made of the repeat players before the U.S. Supreme Court – and rightfully so. They are involved in many high profile cases the justices hear, several have prior governmental experience…and they win. These attorneys include past-SG’s Seth Waxman, Ted Olson, and Paul Clement among others. An understudied but…
Attorneys and Firms in the Supreme Court 2016
The Supreme Court wrapped up oral arguments for the 2016 term on April 26, 2017 with arguments in Sandoz Inc. v. Amgen and Maslenjak v. United States. These marked the 63rd and 64th arguments the Justices heard this term – down five from the 69 arguments the Justices heard a year prior. While the Court…
Bringing Cases in an Unusual Term: Top Petitioners and Cert Amici
There are certain criteria that indicate or signal the importance of a Supreme Court petition to the Court –experienced SCOTUS counsel on the cert briefs, federal governmental involvement, and cert stage amicus briefs – just to name a few. Although there is no surefire way to predict whether the Court will grant cert in a…
The Summer Pipeline
Supreme Court Justices make few official decisions during the summer. Generally, these relate to emergency matter that require quick injunctive responses. For lawyers, however, the situation is quite different (as the saying goes “time and tide wait for no man”). While the Court does not rule on cases during the summer, cert petitions accumulate just…
Cert Filing Leaders
Chambers and Partners regularly releases highly regarded law firm rankings and comparisons. One of these guides compares top appellate firms. The firms detailed in Chambers’ list are top players in the Supreme Court and employ many of the attorneys with the most extensive Supreme Court expertise. While these firms are recognized for their work in…
SCOTUS Scorecard Pt. 2: The Firm Side of the Story
The top Supreme Court litigators from this past Term were composed of a group of well-known names within circles that track cases moving through the Court. Examining these attorneys, however, only conveys part of the story of the actors involved in this litigation. From the perspective of the client representation there is a structure that goes…
Quick Note: Foreshadowing 2015 SCOTUS Stats
In a more detailed upcoming post I will take a look at many of the significant statistics from this term at the Supreme Court; especially those to do with the actors involved in the cases. To provide some early results, in this post I have the non-governmental attorney and firm that were involved in the…
Atypical Oral Arguments In Puerto Rico v. Franklin CA Trust
On Tuesday the Court heard arguments in Puerto Rico v. Franklin Cal. Tax-Free Trust a case that examines whether Congress precluded Puerto Rico from the ability to restructure its public utility debt. Specifically the case looks at whether Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code applies to Puerto Rico. Much of the case and the arguments…
The Last Leg of the Term
(image from loc.gov) The end of oral arguments for this Supreme Court Term is around the corner. With 21 cases left (not counting joined dockets in the same case) I compiled some stats on what is still to come. This post looks at the attorneys, firms, and parties in these 21 cases. There are two sections of…
Successful Cert Amici 2014
With 7,006 cases disposed of during the 2014 Supreme Court term, Supreme Court Justices and clerks had an abundance of cases on their plates. One way that the Justices and clerks find their way to the more important cases (specifically to cases that are important to people beyond the individual parties in the case) is…
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