During the 2018 term, the Supreme Court heard 67 oral arguments leading to decisions. The justices’ opinions cited briefs filed in these cases and law articles approximately 601 times. These citations were from a total of approximately 330 briefs and articles. The citations were primarily clustered in certain cases. For instance, 30 cases or about…
Tag: WilmerHale
Advocates that Drive the Justices’ Votes
Supreme Court scholars often debate the role of lawyers in Supreme Court decision making. For an attitudinalist, the justices’ preferences make all (or at least most of) the difference. According to this theory justices will often vote based on their preferred policy direction, which minimizes the role of advocacy. More recent studies show that such…
Top Firms’ Supreme Court Business: Some Stay Close While Others Stay Away
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…
SCOTUS Success 2016
Now that the Supreme Court term is over, let the scoring begin. While this post looks at the most successful firms, litigators, and groups before the Supreme Court during the 2016 term, there are several caveats to note. First, this post looks at success before the Court as measured by win counts. Second, getting to…
The Year of the Patent
Possibly due to its eight Justice configuration, the Supreme Court heard a unique slate of cases this term with no noted landmark cases or decisions. Then again perhaps landmark is in the eye of the beholder. This term the Supreme Court heard six patent cases which conceivably is the most such cases the Supreme Court has heard…
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…
Will the Election Help Normalize Business at the Supreme Court?
Prior to the Presidential Election there was profound uncertainty about the future of the Court. Before election night many believed Clinton would take the presidency and the democrats would look to move on the Garland nomination or otherwise nominate another candidate to the Supreme Court. With the Trump victory an entirely new chapter will be…
Starting Lineups: SCOTUS Attorneys and Firms of Record at the Beginning of OT 2016
Oral arguments begin for the 2016 Supreme Court Term tomorrow, Tuesday October 3rd. On one hand, commentary surrounding the Term often relates to the lack of interesting cases on the Court’s docket. Much of the rationale for the current Court’s decisions is thought to stem from its depleted number of Justices. Thus while the political…
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…
Oral Argument Winners 2015/2016
Image by: Carlos Barria/Reuters This week marks the end of the 2015 Supreme Court Term. There are a ton of data to sort through to better understand the repercussions of the cases and the actors involved. One way to analyze the data is simply by looking at the attorneys that were most successful at oral argument…
The Regulars: Supreme Court Litigation 2015-2016
Since 2001 the Supreme Court has written full opinions in 67-75 orally argued cases per Term. We are certain not to see more than 75 this Term and nowhere near the 151 such cases in the 1982 and 1983 Terms, which were high points for the second half of the 20th century. With fewer cases,…
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