Faculty Directors Professor Steven Goldblatt and Professor Richard Lazarus are Co-Directors of the Supreme Court Institute. They are assisted by a faculty advisory committee, an outside advisory board comprised of experienced Supreme Court advocates, and a Supreme Court Institute Fellow. The external board provides the Institute with the broader perspective especially important in developing policies and priorities for current and future programs.  The Institute's work through its moot court program is profiled in a recent article, Practicing Before the Court, which appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of Georgetown Law's alumni magazine.

Faculty Advisory Committee
Professor Susan Low Bloch
Professor Peter Byrne
Professor David Cole
Professor Viet Dinh
Professor Michael Gottesman
Professor Vicki Jackson
Professor Julie Rose O'Sullivan
Professor Cornelia Pillard
Professor Louis Michael Seidman
Professor David Vladeck
Distinguished Visitor from Practice Seth Waxman

Outside Advisory Board
Donald B. Ayer, Jones Day
Beth S. Brinkmann, Morrison & Foerster LLP
Richard Cooper, Williams & Connolly LLP
Carolyn Corwin, Covington & Burling
Roy T. Englert, Jr., Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck & Untereiner LLP
Laurence Gold, Bredhoff & Kaiser PLLC
Thomas Goldstein, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Pamela Harris, O'Melveny & Myers LLP
George Kendall, Holland & Knight LLP
Jody Manier Kris, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP
Jeffrey A. Lamken, Baker Botts LLP
Hon. Timothy K. Lewis, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP
Theodore B. Olson, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Carter G. Phillips, Sidley Austin LLP
Charles Rothfeld, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP
Richard Ruda, State & Local Legal Center
Dan Schweitzer, National Association Of Attorneys General
Richard Taranto, Farr & Taranto

Institute Fellow
Tina Drake Zimmerman

Outside Advisory Board

Donald B. Ayer is a partner in the Washington, DC Office of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, engaged in trial and appellate litigation involving business disputes and governmental entities. Mr. Ayer received an A.B., with Great Distinction, from Stanford University in 1971, and an M.A. in American History from Harvard University in 1973. He received his J.D. from Harvard University in 1975, where he was Articles Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He clerked for Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey of the D.C. Circuit and then Justice Rehnquist of the Supreme Court. Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Ayer spent ten years in the U.S. Department of Justice, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney, Deputy Solicitor General, and Deputy Attorney General. He has extensive trial and appellate litigation experience, having tried more than 20 cases, most to juries, and argued more than 50 cases in the federal appellate courts and fourteen cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Ayer is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, the Board of Directors of the Institute of Judicial Administration, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Beth S. Brinkmann is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office, where her primary focus is on litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States and other appellate matters.  Ms. Brinkmann has argued 20 cases before the Supreme Court.  From 1993 to 2001, Ms. Brinkmann served as Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States.  In that capacity, she argued on behalf of the United States before the Supreme Court in a wide range of cases involving constitutional law, federal statutory law, administrative law, civil rights, ERISA, Indian law, immigration law, and criminal law.  Ms. Brinkmann served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender from 1991 to 1993.  From 1987 to 1991, she worked as an associate in a San Francisco litigation firm where she appeared in state and federal courts.   Ms. Brinkmann served as a law clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Supreme Court of the United States, from 1986 to 1987. 

Richard Cooper is a partner at Williams & Connolly, L.L.P. in Washington, DC, active in the practice areas of Food and Drug Law and Litigation. Mr. Cooper served as a Law Clerk to Associate Justice William J. Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1969 Term. Following this tenure, he served as a Senior Lecturer at the Law Development Centre in Kampala, Uganda from 1970-1971. His governmental experience includes his position as Special Assistant to James R. Schlesinger and Senior Member of the Office of Energy Policy and Planning of the Executive Office of the President in 1977. In this role, he worked on the preparation and presentation of the National Energy Plan to Congress. Additionally, from 1977-1979, he served as Chief Counsel for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Mr. Cooper received Bachelor's Degrees from Haverford College (summa cum laude) and Oxford University (Rhodes Scholarship). He earned a Master's Degree at Oxford as well. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was President of the Harvard Law Review and won the Sears Prize for standing first in first-year examinations and second in second-year examinations.

Carolyn Corwin is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Covington & Burling. Her practice includes both regulatory work and litigation (including appellate litigation), primarily in the transportation and energy areas. From 1982 to 1985, Ms.
Corwin served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice. While at the Justice Department, she argued nine cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. Ms. Corwin received her B.A. degree from Oberlin College and her J.D. degree from Yale Law School. Following law school, she served as a law clerk toSenior Judge Caleb M. Wright of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Ms. Corwin is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association, and the Energy Bar Association. She currently serves as a Vice Chair of the Transportation Industry Committee of the ABA's Section on Antitrust Law.

Roy T. Englert, Jr. is a founding partner of Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck & Untereiner LLP in Washington, DC. He has presented oral argument before the Supreme Court in eleven cases and has briefed many other cases before the Court. He represents Amtrak in an employment discrimination case that will be argued before the Court in December 2001 or January 2002. Mr. Englert earned a mathematics degree from Princeton University at the age of 19 in 1978, and then received his law degree in 1981 from Harvard Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He clerked on the D.C. Circuit and practiced with a Washington firm before joining the Office of the Solicitor General in 1986. After his government service, Mr. Englert joined the Washington office of Mayer, Brown & Platt, where he was a partner in the Appellate Group for more than a decade before leaving in the spring of 2001. The partners in his new firm have a combined 24-3 record in cases they have argued before the Supreme Court. More information about Mr. Englert and Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck & Untereiner LLP is available at www.robbinsrussell.com.

Laurence Gold is Of Counsel at Bredhoff & Kaiser. He is a graduate of Princeton University and received his LLB and LLM from Harvard University. Mr. Gold served as a Law Clerk to The Honorable Joe Ingraham, United States District Court in Houston, Texas. He has served the legal profession as an attorney in the Supreme Court Branch Office of the General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board, 1963-1965, an Associate at Woll & Mayter, Washington, DC, and a Partner at Woll, Mayer & Gold. Mr. Gold was the AFL-CIO Special Counsel, General Counsel, and Executive Director of the Lawyers Coordinating Committee. He has taught as Visiting Lecturer or Professor at George Washington University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and the University of Michigan Law School.

Thomas C. Goldstein heads Akin Gump's Supreme Court practice. In the Supreme Court and elsewhere, Mr. Goldstein has briefed and argued cases spanning a broad array of federal law questions – including both constitutional and statutory issues – for corporate, governmental and individual clients. Mr. Goldstein has argued 17 cases before the Supreme Court, winning in four of his last five appearances, three by five-justice majorities.  In addition to practicing law, Mr. Goldstein teaches Supreme Court litigation at both Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School. Since 2003 he has been principally responsible for SCOTUSblog (www.scotusblog.com), which is devoted to coverage of the Court and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading legal blogs.

Pamela Harris is Of Counsel in O’Melveny & Myers LLP’s Washington, D.C. office. Pam focuses on the firm’s pro bono appellate practice. Pam also mediates cases as part of the D.C. Circuit’s mediation program. Pam is a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center where she teaches a course on constitutional criminal procedure.  Before joining the firm, Pam was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she specialized in constitutional criminal procedure and the law of church and state. From 1993 to 1996, Pam worked in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice.

George Kendall is a senior counsel in the New York office of Holland & Knight.  He works exclusively on the community services team that devotes all of its attention to pro bono matters. Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Kendall worked as a staff attorney on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's (LDF) capital punishment project and then led LDF's Criminal Justice Unit overseeing cases at trial, on appeal and in state and federal post-conviction proceedings, and regularly consulted with attorneys throughout the country who represent capital defendants. As director of LDF's Criminal Justice Unit, Kendall and other LDF attorneys monitored all capital and habeas litigation before the Supreme Court of the United States During more than a decade of focus on capital cases, he often appeared as a panelist at capital litigation seminars held throughout the country and has taught courses on Racism and the Death Penalty. He has received many honors for his dedication and commitment to fair representation in the administration of criminal justice.

Jody Manier Kris is Counsel at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale, and Dorr L.L.P.  where she focuses on appellate and federal trial work in the areas of civil and criminal litigation.  Drawing upon her experience as a law clerk to Chief Justice Rehnquist and an Honors Program lawyer for the Solicitor General, Ms. Kris has represented clients in the Supreme Court at the petition and merits stages.  Her appellate experience covers a broad range of constitutional and other issues, including due process, application of the Medicare Anti-kickback statute, operation of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, interpretation of the federal false statement statute, and review of terrorist designations by the Secretary of State, among others. Ms. Kris formerly practiced at Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, where she focused on white-collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation. In the Supreme Court, she has prepared several amicus curiae briefs for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and health care lawyer membership organizations on criminal law issues, and represented civil clients in the areas of telecommunications law, securities law, religious freedom and other statutory issues. Ms. Kris graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. She clerked for Judge Williams of the D.C. Circuit and for Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Jeffrey Lamken is the head of the Supreme Court and appellate practice in the Washington office of Baker Botts. Before joining Baker Botts, Mr. Lamken served as assistant to the solicitor general in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States Department of Justice. Mr. Lamken has argued 17 cases before the United States Supreme Court, covering a wide range of subjects, including administrative law, antitrust, bankruptcy, civil rights, criminal procedure, free speech, intellectual property, search and seizure, statutory construction, and telecommunications law.  Following graduation from law school, Mr. Lamken served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the United States Supreme Court.

Timothy K. Lewis is a former federal appeals judge and is co-chair of the Appellate Practice Group at Schnader Harrison, Segal & Lewis LLP.  He also serves as a mediator, arbitrator, settlement counselor, and trial and appellate practitioner.  Before entering private practice, Judge Lewis served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  He had served as a U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania before President George H. W. Bush elevated him to the Court of Appeals in 1992.  At the time of both appointments he was the youngest federal judge in the United States.  Before being appointed to the federal bench, Judge Lewis served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and as an Assistant District Attorney in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.  His current practice includes complex arbitration and mediation matters, as well as commercial litigation, federal and state criminal cases, and federal and state appeals.

Theodore B. Olson is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's Washington, D.C. office.  He is a member of the firm's Executive Committee, serves as Co-Chair of the Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group and a member of the Media and Entertainment Practice Group, and heads the firm's Crisis Management Team.  Mr. Olson was Solicitor General of the United States during the period 2001-2004.  From 1981-1984 he was Assistant United States Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel.  Except for those two intervals, he has been a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. since 1965.  Mr. Olson is one of the nation's premier appellate and United States Supreme Court advocates.  He has argued 41 cases in the Supreme Court, including Bush v. Palm Beach Country Canvassing Board and Bush v. Gore, stemming from the 2000 presidential election.  Mr. Olson's practice is concentrated on constitutional law, appellate litigation, federal legislation, media and commercial disputes, and assisting clients with developing strategies for the containment, management and resolution of major legal crises occurring at the federal/state, criminal/civil and domestic/international levels.  He has handled cases at all levels of state and federal court systems throughout the United States, and in international tribunals.

Carter G. Phillips is the Managing Partner of the Washington, DC office of Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood, and is a member of the firm's Management Committee. He served as a law clerk to both Judge Robert Sprecher on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger on the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Phillips served as Assistant to the Solicitor General for three years, during which time he argued nine cases on behalf of the federal government in the United States Supreme Court. Since joining Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood, Mr. Phillips has argued 24 cases before the Supreme Court as well as numerous cases in the courts of appeals. Mr. Phillips has argued seven cases in the past two years. Examples of some of his cases are as follows: Mr. Phillips argued NCAA v. Smith, which involved an application of Title IX to the NCAA. He argued TXO Production Corp. v. Alliances Resources, Inc., which involved the due process standards applied to punitive damage awards. Mr. Phillips successfully argued Yee v. City of Escondido, which involved a challenge under the Takings Clause to the city's laws regulating mobile homes. Mr. Phillips briefed and argued McNally v. United States, 483 U.S. 350 (1986), in which the Supreme Court struck down the prevailing interpretation of the mail fraud statute that had been used to convict hundreds of public officials, including Governors Mandel and Kerner. He also has represented health care clients on a number of appellate matters involving important issues of health policy, and has represented a significant number of states on issues ranging from the constitutionality of limits on campaign contributions to the validity of federal court orders regulating state prison libraries. Mr. Phillips is a graduate of Ohio State University (B.A., 1973, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and Northwestern University (J.D., 1977, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif; M.A., 1975).

Charles Rothfeld is Counsel in the Washington, DC office of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP. After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, he served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Spottswood Robinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court. He also has worked as an assistant to the Solicitor General in the U.S. Justice Department and as counsel to the State and Local Legal Center. While at Mayer, Brown he has advised the independent counsels in the Iran/Contra and HUD inquiries, as well as the Committee of the House of Representatives investigating Iranian arms sales to Croatia and Bosnia. He has written hundreds of briefs and certiorari petitions in the Supreme Court and has argued 20 cases in the Court.

Richard Ruda is Chief Counsel of the State & Local Legal Center in Washington, DC, a position he has held since January 1991. The Legal Center files amicus briefs in support of States and local governments in the U.S. Supreme Court, conducts moot courts for attorneys arguing in the Supreme Court, and provides other assistance to States and local governments in connection with Supreme Court litigation. Prior to joining the Legal Center, Mr. Ruda was in private practice in Washington, DC, specializing in federal litigation. He received a B.A. degree from Yale University, holds graduate degrees from Yale and the University of London, and received a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.

Dan Schweitzer was appointed Supreme Court Counsel of the National Association of Attorneys General in February 1996. His principal responsibility is to assist state appellate litigators who appear before the U.S. Supreme Court. Toward this end, he organizes and participates in moot courts, edits state briefs, edits the weekly Supreme Court Report, and provides technical assistance to state offices. He also recently argued his first case before the Supreme Court, as amicus curiae in Artuz v. Bennett. Among Mr. Schweitzer's publications are Alden, College Savings Bank and Florida Prepaid: What They Hold and What They Mean to the Future of Federal-State Relations, National Environmental Enforcement Journal (Sept. 1999); Tips for Preparing Cert Petitions and Oppositions (NAAG Supreme Court Series 1999); and Fundamentals of Preparing a U.S. Supreme Court Amicus Brief (NAAG Supreme Court Series 1997). Prior to joining NAAG, he was a litigator at Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin, L.L.P. in Washington, DC. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (B.A. 1986) and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1989).

Richard Taranto is in private practice at Farr & Taranto in Washington, DC. He served as a law clerk to Justice O'Connor and an Assistant to the Solicitor General. His practice concentrates on Supreme Court and appellate litigation.

Institute Fellow

Tina Drake Zimmerman is a 2003 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and returned to the Supreme Court Institute as its Fellow in July of 2006 after practicing as a legal aid attorney in Reading, Pennsylvania.  Ms. Zimmerman previously served as the Administrator to the Georgetown-Sloan Project on Business Institutions and the Supreme Court Institute.