For appellate adversaries of Sidley Austin partner Carter Phillips, the announcement on April 29 that he would chair the firm’s executive committee starting next year may have been cause for celebration. With a promotion like that, they might have figured that Phillips would be too busy to keep arguing, and winning, against them.
No such luck. Even though he’ll be running a firm with more than 1,500 lawyers worldwide, Phillips plans to continue arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court at roughly his current pace, averaging four or five turns at the lectern every term. He has argued 76 cases before the Supreme Court more than any other person now in private practice.
