Soon after President Barack Obama formally announced three nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, there wasn’t much if any public criticism of the qualifications of the candidates. The nominees Patricia Millett, Cornelia Pillard and Robert Wilkins would come to the bench with long, distinguished careers in the law.
Millett, who leads the Supreme Court practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, is one of Washington’s best-known appellate litigators, coming in tops among women who have argued the most cases before the high court. Millett and Arnold & Porter’s Lisa Blatt have traded places as the leader, with Blatt now sitting at the top by one with 33 cases argued.