Deputy Director

Dori Bernstein joins the Supreme Court Institute after many years of service in the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she briefed and argued employment discrimination cases in the federal Courts of Appeals.  Ms. Bernstein served as a law clerk to then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and as a staff attorney in the Office of the Chief Staff Counsel for the D.C. Circuit.  She is a graduate of New York University Law School and earned an LLM in Appellate Advocacy as a fellow in the Appellate Litigation Clinic at Georgetown Law.

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.

Lisa S. Blatt is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Arnold & Porter, and she heads the firm’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice group.  From 1996 until 2009, she was an Assistant to the Solicitor General where she argued 28 cases before the Supreme Court, and prevailed in 27 of those cases.  She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas School of Law in 1989 and summa cum laude from the University of Texas in 1986.  She clerked for the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for the 1989-1990 Term.

Paul D. Clement is a partner at Bancroft PLLC.  Mr. Clement served as the 43rd Solicitor General of the United States from June 2005 until June 2008.  Prior to his confirmation as Solicitor General, he served as Acting Solicitor General for nearly a year and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General for over three years.  Mr. Clement has argued over 50 cases before the United States Supreme Court, including McConnell v. FEC, Tennessee v. Lane, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, Credit Suisse v. Billing, United States v. Booker and MGM v. Grokster. He also argued many of the government’s most important cases in the lower courts, such as Walker v. Cheney and the successful appeal in United States v. Moussaoui.   Mr. Clement received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge University.  He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was the Supreme Court editor of the Harvard Law Review.   Mr. Clement is a Visiting Professor at Georgetown Law and a Senior Fellow of the Supreme Court Institute.

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, D.C. He has presented oral argument before the Supreme Court in nineteen cases and has briefed many other cases before the Court. 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.

David Frederick is a partner at Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel PLLC in Washington D.C.  Mr. Frederick served as Counselor to the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1995 to 1996, and Assistant to the Solicitor General from 1996 to 2001.  He has argued 32 cases in the Supreme Court, and has argued in every U.S. Court of Appeals.  Mr. Frederick has authored numerous publications, including The Art of Oral Advocacy (2003) and Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy (2003).  A Rhodes Scholar, he graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, and clerked for Justice Byron R. White and Hon. Joseph T. Sneed of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Gregory G. Garre is is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins and Global Chair of the firm's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Group. He recently served as the 44th Solicitor General of the United States. As Solicitor General, he was the federal government's top lawyer before the Supreme Court and was responsible for overseeing the government's litigation in the federal appellate courts. Mr. Garre received his JD degree with high honors from the George Washington University Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the law review and was selected to Order of the Coif, and his BA degree cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he was a Rufus Choate Scholar.  Following his graduation from law school, he served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and to Judge Anthony J. Scirica of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He has taught constitutional law and Supreme Court practice for many years at the George Washington University Law School.

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 is a founder of Goldstein, Howe & Russell, the nation’s first and only Supreme Court litigation boutique.  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 23 cases before the Supreme Court.  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.

George Kendall is Of Counsel in the New York office of Squire Sanders.  He works primarily on pro bono matters, including capital, criminal and civil rights cases. Prior to joining Squire Sanders, 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.

Jeffrey Lamken is a founding partner of MoloLamken LLP, a firm that specializes in complex litigation.  Previously, Mr. Lamken was 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 20 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.

Deanne E. Maynard is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Morrison & Foerster, where she chairs the Appellate and Supreme Court practice group.  A former Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States 2004-2009, Ms. Maynard has argued 12 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has filed over 100 Supreme Court briefs.  Ms. Maynard clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer during the October 1994 Term; during the 1993 Term, she clerked for retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell and affiliated with Justice John Paul Stevens.  Ms. Maynard is the current Chair of Programming for the Coke Appellate Inn of Court.  She graduated magna cum laude in 1991 from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and earned a B.A., with distinction, in English from the University of Virginia, where she was also Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa.

Patricia “Pattie” Millett heads Akin Gump’s Supreme Court practice and regularly speaks on Supreme Court and appellate advocacy issues in forums nationwide.  To date, she has argued 28 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and approximately 30 in the courts of appeals.  Ms. Millett served for eleven years as an Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice where, in 2004, she was awarded the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for representing the interests of the United States before the Supreme Court.  More recently, the National Law Journal named her one of Washington’s 2010 Most Influential Women Lawyers.  After earning her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, Ms. Millett clerked for two years for the late Judge Thomas Tang, on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

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 works as a legal consultant to states, cities, towns, and counties on matters in the U.S. Supreme Court.  Prior to entering the private practice of law, he served for 20 years as Chief Counsel of the State and Local Legal Center in Washington, D.C.  At the Legal Center he filed over 200 amicus briefs in support of states and municipalities in the U.S. Supreme Court.  He also advised state and local government attorneys and officials about Supreme Court legal doctrine, and the High Court's practice and procedure.  Mr. Ruda 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.

David B. Salmons is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Bingham McCutchen, and chair of the firm’s Appellate Practice Group. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Salmons served for six years as an assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States, where he received several awards for his work on important appellate matters, including the Department of Justice’s John Marshall Award for Excellence in Handling Appeals in 2006, the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Furthering the Interests of U.S. National Security in 2003, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Award for Excellence in 2005.  He has argued 14 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous other cases before other federal district and appellate courts, and has litigated cases involving a wide range of commercial, administrative, civil rights and constitutional issues.  Mr. Salmons is a former law clerk to the Hon. W. Eugene Davis, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.  Mr. Salmons graduated with high honors from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, and earned his B.A., summa cum laude, from Brigham Young University.

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).

Paul M. Smith is a partner at Jenner & Block, where he serves as Chair of the Appellate and Supreme Court Practice, a Co-Chair of the Creative Content, Media and First Amendment, and Election Law and Redistricting Practices, and a member of the firm’s Policy Committee.  He has argued 13 Supreme Court cases, and represents clients in trial and appellate litigation involving commercial and telecommunications issues, the First Amendment, intellectual property, antitrust, and redistricting and voting rights.  Mr. Smith clerked for Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and Hon. James L. Oakes, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College, and earned his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal.

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.