(January 18, 2018, WASHINGTON, DC)– Todd Kim, the first Solicitor General (SG) for the District of Columbia, will join Reed Smith LLP in its Washington D.C. office as a partner in the firm’s appellate practice. In 11 years as the District’s SG, he led a staff of twenty that represented the District of Columbia government in the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and the D.C. Court of Appeals. Mr. Kim’s first day with Reed Smith will be January 31.
As Solicitor General, Mr. Kim was responsible for all aspects of the District’s appellate litigation, including overseeing litigation strategy and substantive legal positions. The thousands of appeals under his command spanned a tremendous variety of subject matters covering administrative, civil and criminal law. He personally argued significant appeals, including constitutional and regulatory challenges to District policies, contract and tax cases worth tens of millions of dollars, and multiple en banc matters. This term he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Wesby, a case which is awaiting the Court’s decision.
Prior to his appointment as Solicitor General, Mr. Kim served in the Appellate Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment & Natural Resources Division, where he briefed and argued significant appeals before all 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals.
“Todd’s experience as Solicitor General and his added experience in front of appellate courts nationwide make him a perfect fit for Reed Smith’s appellate practice, which represents clients all over the country,” said Kim Watterson, Practice Group Leader of the firm’s Appellate Practice. “ Our clients across the country will benefit from Todd’s broad and varied subject matter knowledge, his deep familiarity with all the D.C. appellate courts, and his extensive experience in federal regulatory and administrative law.”
“Reed Smith has the ideal platform from which to launch my career in private practice. With its sterling reputation in appellate work, its coast-to-coast geographic reach, and the diversity of subject matter handled by its appellate practice, Reed Smith is exactly what I was looking for,” said Mr. Kim. “I hope to help grow Reed Smith’s appellate practice in the District as well as use my experience with the District’s appellate courts to assist all our clients, such as in civil cases in the Supreme Court, regulatory matters in the D.C. Circuit, and local appeals in the D.C. Court of Appeals.”
Mr. Kim received his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Executive Editor of Harvard Law Review, and his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard College. He was nominated by President Barack Obama in February 2014 to serve as an associate judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Reed Smith is one of the few AmLaw 100 firms with a long-standing dedicated appellate practice; our lawyers have prevailed on behalf of clients across a variety of industries in cases that often turn on specialized knowledge and thorough understanding of complex legal and procedural issues.
A hallmark of the firm’s appellate practice is its collaboration with clients and their trial counsel to devise litigation strategies attuned to appellate issues at the outset of a trial in order to most effectively prepare to win on appeal, if needed, in their most important commercial, regulatory, and constitutional disputes.
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