Firms For Appellate Lit With My Stats? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I really want to do appellate litigation at a decent firm (preferably with a DC office). I’m an HYS grad, graduated with Latin honors, law review, and have a Second Circuit clerkship lined up for this year. I also summered and then worked for a year at a V50 firm (without a robust appellate practice). However, I’m not top of my class and my judge isn’t a feeder so I’m not expecting to be in the running for a SCOTUS clerkship. Would appellate litigation still be an option for me post clerkship and does anyone have suggestions on firms that I would have a decent shot with and should look into?

[Anonymous User]

I really want to do appellate litigation at a decent firm (preferably with a DC office). I’m an HYS grad, graduated with Latin honors, law review, and have a Second Circuit clerkship lined up for this year. I also summered and then worked for a year at a V50 firm (without a robust appellate practice). However, I’m not top of my class and my judge isn’t a feeder so I’m not expecting to be in the running for a SCOTUS clerkship. Would appellate litigation still be an option for me post clerkship and does anyone have suggestions on firms that I would have a decent shot with and should look into?

Gibson Dunn DC would stand out because of the amount of appellate work they do and the raw numbers of people they hire - granted, it isn't that many, but it's more than most.

[hdr]

With your background, presumably you know people who can give you much better insight on appellate hiring than anyone on TLS. I would ask them.

IMO no one without a SCOTUS clerkship or SG experience should pursue DC appellate lit as a career. It's the one practice area where you'll be forever disadvantaged. Sure, you can get hired by plenty of appellate practices with just a COA clerkship, but you'll have a tough time distinguishing yourself, and your in-house options will be limited. If you just want to suffer 2-3 more years of biglaw and then go to DOJ then appellate is fine, but it's not a great practice area for the long-term.

I'd recommend going to a firm that will let you work on a mix of different things so you can do some appellate and something more practical. If you really want to specialize in appellate than look outside DC at state appellate practices.

[Anonymous User]

Of the elite appellate practices GDC, Latham, and Wilmer are supposed to be relatively open. I know Hunton is trying to grow its appellate practice and has hired people without rock star backgrounds for it. There are some below-market 100% appellate boutiques that might bite--Goldstein & Russell, Consovoy McCarthy (only if you're conservative for the latter).

Like everything appellate though the best career move is to leave DC and/or enter government.

1. In biglaw you're not going to get arguments for paying clients until you're a senior associate, if ever.
2. Making partner is very, very hard and non-government exit options are rare.
3. Biglaw has such high rates that it actually has a very small share of the appellate market (and a lot of high-profile biglaw appellate cases, especially at SCOTUS, are done for free), so a lot of places you've never heard of do a lot of appeals.
4. There's weaker credentialism competition outside of DC so it's easier to become an appellate specialist with "only" a top COA clerkship. Even in like TX, a major market with a lot of SCOTUS clerks, the top of the market is much less congested.

You can work DC for a bit then lateral elsewhere, there are plenty of e.g. GDC DC alums practicing across the country, but it'll almost certainly be easier to lateral as a generalist with appellate experience than as an appeals specialist (especially an appeals specialist who's never argued an appeal).