Supreme Court law blog publisher to join Akin Gump

Thomas Goldstein, U.S. Supreme Court advocacy lawyer and publisher the Supreme Court Law Blog (SCOTUSBLOG), is moving to one of the largest firms in the country. Tom, who currently runs three member Goldstein & Howe from his house with wife Amy Howe, will become a partner at 900 lawyer Akin Gump.

Tom’s story in law.com (sub. req’ed.) is a great read. He did not take the usual route of Harvard Law Review, judicial clerkship and toiling at huge firms before arguing 16 cases before the Supreme Court. Tom got turned onto the Supreme Court twelve years ago while interning for National Public Radio correspondent Nina Totenberg as a student at American University’s Washington College of Law.

He found clients by scanning lower court rulings for splits among federal circuits and then cold-calling lawyers who lost with an offer to take their cases to the Supreme Court for free. Tell me that ain’t the stuff dreams are made of. I don’t care that Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., then at Hogan & Hartson, commenting on Tom’s practice said, ‘If I’m going to have heart bypass surgery, I wouldn’t go to the surgeon who calls me up. I’d look for the guy who’s too busy for that.’

Tom’s blog no doubt played a roll in getting him to where he is today. SCOTUSBlog (presumably standing for Supreme Court U.S. Blog) is one of the best known blogs on the Internet. Heck, the blog has over 18,000 pages of its content indexed at Google. Large law firms salivate over getting lawyers with Tom’s publishing notoriety, let alone his legal skills.

Well done Tom.

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