As we wrote last month, Walter Dellinger thinks pretty highly of his O’Melveny & Myers colleague Sri Srinivasan. The former Acting Solicitor General called him the smartest person’s he ever worked with at the SG’s office. Apparently Daniel Petrocelli, who heads O’Melveny’s trial practice, has a good deal of confidence in Srinivasan as well. On Thursday, Petrocelli told the Litigation Daily that he and Delligner had decided that Srinivasan will argue before the Supreme Court on March 1, representing former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling in the appeal of his criminal conviction.
Petrocelli, who represented Skilling at trial and before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, admitted that he “very much” wanted to argue the appeal himself and that Dellinger was “more than willing and able” to handle it. But in the end, Petrocelli and Dellinger tapped Srinivasan, who has argued 15 cases before the Supreme Court, according to his bio. His most recent appearance was in Hertz Corp. v. Friend, which addressed the factors that a court should consider when determining a corporation’s principal place of business for purposes of diversity jurisdiction. (Arguments were held in early November, and the court is yet to rule.)
