This Washington Monthly article profiles Tommy Goldstein, the Washington D.C. lawyer who, though still in his 20s, has elbowed his way into the select group of lawyers who regularly appear before the U.S. Supreme Court. What makes Mr. Goldstein’s story most interesting is that he has accomplished this feat while starting and operating his three-lawyer firm out of his house:
He had never clerked for a justice or worked in the SG’s office. He earned his law degree at plebian American University, not Harvard or Yale. Yet Goldstein is already renowned among his peers and has begun to make a lot of money, too. This year, his firm, Goldstein & Howe– Howe is his wife and partner, Amy–will bill close to $1.5 million in fees. “His knowledge of the court is breathtaking,” says Ronald Collins, a First Amendment scholar at the Freedom Forum and former court clerk. “One cannot speak about Supreme Court litigation without breathing Tom’s name. And he has only just begun.”
Hat tip to On Appeal for the link to this interesting story.