Congratulations to the Fab Fifty: A Constellation of Young Legal Superstars
We love lists: the Forbes 400, the U.S. News college and law school rankings, or Washingtonian magazine's list of 40 top lawyers under 40. We love lawyers -- which is good, since we spend all day writing about them. And we love fabulous things.
So you can imagine our delight upon seeing this feature from The American Lawyer: The Young Litigators Fab Fifty. It's a list of 50 top litigators from around the country, all under the age of 45, whom the magazine "expect[s] to see leading the field for years to come."
You can check out the list here. Regular readers of ATL will recognize many of these youthful luminaries. Here are some highlights:
-- Latham & Watkins partner Sean Berkowitz,* the former prosecutor who rose to fame durring the Enron case;-- Paul Clement, the U.S. Solicitor General (who was very nice to us);
-- Weil Gotshal partner Gregory Coleman and Texas Solicitor General R. Ted Cruz, two top Texas lawyers (and possible Fifth Circuit nominees);
-- Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, the delectable DOJ diva;
-- Jeffrey Fisher, of Davis Wright & Tremaine, SCOTUS lefty litigator extraordinaire (he's a Bleeding Reinhardt and former JPS clerk);
-- Deputy Solicitor General Gregory Garre, Chief Justice Roberts's former l'il buddy (from his Hogan & Hartson days);
-- Professor Neal Katyal of Georgetown Law, the "Paris Hilton of the Legal Elite";
-- Alabama's Solicitor General, Kevin Newsom (amusing story about him here); and
-- Eugene Scalia, the Gibson Dunn partner and fabled ERISA hottie (and son of Nino).
On the whole, it's an excellent list. We can think of a few questionable omissions (and a few dubious selections). But with something this subjective, reasonable minds will differ.
Congrats again to the Fab Fifty!
* Does anyone know if Sean Berkowitz and Bethany McLean, the Fortune reporter who covered Enron, are still an item?
The Young Litigators Fab Fifty [American Lawyer]










Comments
Did I miss Tom Goldstein on this list? What a snub for the folks over at AG.... Maybe this will bring him down to earth.
Posted by: DC Dude | January 3, 2007 02:03 PM
The Neal Katyal picture is a frighteningly close close-up. The media people screwed that one up.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 3, 2007 02:10 PM
I believe there are a few people on that list who only litigated two or three cases in their lives. Interesting that they could be the top litigators.
Posted by: Hok | January 3, 2007 03:19 PM
I was at C&B with Newsom. He was constantly sending out associate-wide emails asking if anyone had a good case for x proposition. It was so annoying. No one but a member of the elect could have gotten away with that.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 3, 2007 03:24 PM
why is 45 the age limit of being "young"?? that is old in my book.
Posted by: Anonymous | January 3, 2007 03:48 PM
Oh please, these are just popularity contests. As Hok says most of these people move paper and "manage litigation" -- or manage whatever -- for big firms. Nonsense, but par for the course at AmLaw.
Posted by: Ron Coleman | January 3, 2007 09:54 PM