Competition is Fierce for the Hottest Docket in Town

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Appellate Practice

Competition is Fierce for the Hottest Docket in Town

Posted Apr 22, 2008, 12:17 pm CDT
By Molly McDonough

Very few cases are granted cert and get the full attention of the U.S. Supreme Court. So when Texas prisoner Carlos Jimenez made the docket last month with his pro se habeas challenge, it was a sure bet that appellate advocates would be quick to offer their services.

Sure enough, Thomas Goldstein, SCOTUSBlog founder and a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington, D.C., worked quickly with Stanford University's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic to write Jimenez immediately with an offer of free legal services, the Los Angeles Daily Journal reports an article reprinted by How Appealing. But deciding that a letter wasn't enough, Goldstein also elicited the help of his firm's Dallas office, sending a partner and an associate to visit Jimenez in prison.

Then Goldstein, who has argued an impressive 18 cases before the Supreme Court, many while he was operating a boutique appellate advocacy practice, put in a personal appearance.

"There are so few cases and such competition for them that you have to go the extra mile," Goldstein is quoted saying. "The number of opportunities is vanishingly small."

The Daily Journal notes that the Supreme Court bar is increasingly competitive, especially as the high court accepts fewer cases, a new low of 70 this term.

Goldstein estimated that there are about 25 firms competing for Supreme Court work, many of them large firms looking to add credibility to their litigation practices. Added to the mix are Supreme Court-specific law school clinics.

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