Just how long has Sidley Austin been a dominant force in appellate litigation? Consider this: In 1986, Carter Phillips, the firm’s executive committee chairman, argued the case that generated the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s first opinion, and 30 years later, he argued the case in which Scalia wrote his last.
Scalia’s last opinion in January was a dissent in a major energy case that Phillips won: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Association. “In some ways, I bookended his career,” said Phillips about Scalia.
