(Washington, DC) – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – Thomas C. Goldstein, a leading Supreme Court practitioner, will join Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP as a partner in Washington effective May 1, the firm announced today. Mr. Goldstein will continue his Supreme Court practice as well as serve the firm’s litigation clients generally.
Mr. Goldstein joins the firm from Goldstein & Howe, P.C., where he focused primarily on Supreme Court litigation, briefing and arguing cases spanning a broad array of federal law questions – including both constitutional and statutory issues – for corporate, governmental and individual clients. This Term, he is counsel to a party in nine merits cases at the Court, more than 10 percent of the entire docket.
Mr. Goldstein has argued 16 cases before the Court. Most recently, he argued the first case of the current Term, Tum v. Barber Foods, which he won unanimously. In November 2005 he argued Georgia v. Randolph, an important search and seizure case, which is pending. Last Term he successfully argued Spector v. Norwegian Cruise Lines (involving the application of federal disability law to cruise ships) and Smith v. City of Jackson (involving disparate impact age discrimination claims). In addition, he has taken a leading role in numerous other cases, including serving as second chair on behalf of Vice President Al Gore in Bush v. Gore.
In addition to practicing law, Mr. Goldstein teaches Supreme Court litigation at both Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School. Since 2003 he has been principally responsible for SCOTUSblog (www.scotusblog.com), which is devoted to coverage of the Court and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading legal blogs.
Before founding Goldstein & Howe in 1999, Mr. Goldstein practiced law in Washington, D.C., at Boies & Schiller, LLP and at Jones Day Reavis & Pogue. He received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina in 1992 and his J.D. summa cum laude from American University’s Washington College of Law in 1995. He subsequently clerked for the Honorable Patricia M. Wald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. Goldstein has been recognized repeatedly as a leading member of the bar. He was named by Legal Times as one of the leading appellate lawyers in Washington, D.C.; by The National Law Journal as one of the nation’s leading attorneys under the age of 40 (and profiled as one of the top 10); by The American Lawyer as one of the nation’s top 45 attorneys under the age of 45; and by Washingtonian magazine as one of the leading constitutional lawyers and one of a half-dozen attorneys to watch in the 21st century in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Goldstein joins a strong appellate practice — led by Rex S. Heinke — that includes Judge William A. Norris, who served for 17 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit; Edward P. Lazarus, a former assistant U.S. attorney, Supreme Court clerk and critically acclaimed author; and Judge Murry B. Cohen, who served for 20 years on the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas in Houston, as well as former law clerks for the U.S. Supreme Court, nine state supreme courts, 10 federal appellate circuits, 20 federal district courts, three bankruptcy courts, the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
R. Bruce McLean, Akin Gump’s chairman, said, “Tom has argued more cases before the Supreme Court than all but a handful of senior private practitioners and veterans of the solicitor general’s office; his experience is invaluable to our clients. We are extremely pleased to welcome him to Akin Gump.”
Mr. Goldstein added, “Akin Gump is the ideal platform for me to continue to expand my Supreme Court practice with an extraordinary team of lawyers who share my interests. The fact that the firm also has a rich and broad litigation practice, with an extensive client base with novel and difficult legal problems, makes it a perfect fit.”
Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a leading international law firm, numbers more than 900 lawyers with offices in Austin, Brussels, Dallas, Dubai, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Taipei and Washington. The firm has a diversified practice and represents regional, national and international clients in a wide range of areas, including antitrust; appellate; banking and finance; capital markets; communications and information technology; corporate and securities; corporate governance; employee benefits; energy; entertainment and media; environmental; estate planning, wealth transfer and probate; financial restructuring; global security; government contracts; health; insurance; intellectual property; international trade; investment funds; labor and employment; land use; litigation; mergers and acquisitions; private equity; privatization; project development and finance; public law and policy; real estate development and finance; Russia/CIS; tax; and technology.
