Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld spent months preparing for the departure of one of the firm’s star appellate lawyers, Patricia Millett, who last week was confirmed for a slot on a key federal appeals court in Washington.
In August, Akin hired Pratik Shah, an assistant to the solicitor general with 13 U.S. Supreme Court arguments under his belt, as co-head of the firm’s appellate practice. Within a week, Shah argued for Sam’s Club — one of Millett’s clients — in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
