Two recent Law360 feature articles on the influence of U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs quote Larry Ebner, founder of Capital Appellate Advocacy PLLC, a Washington, D.C.-based appellate litigation boutique.
The October 19 article, entitled “6 Ways To Be the High Court’s Best Friend,” quotes Larry on the advantages of representing amicus groups “with a strong reputation of influential advocacy at the high court.” Larry, who has authored numerous Supreme Court amicus briefs for major advocacy groups, explained “the Supreme Court knows . . . that if you have a group like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or the Washington Legal Foundation, or DRI-The Voice of the Defense Bar, what they say about the importance of an issue, what they say about the potential impact of an issue on an industry or on their members is going to be credible, and so the court might give more weight to that than to the views of a lesser-known organization.”
The October 3 article, entitled “BigLaw’s Amicus Business Is Booming, But Is The Court Listening ?” quotes Larry as stating that “At the certiorari stage level, there has been a sea change in the number of amicus briefs that are filed compared to 25 or 30 years ago.” Larry indicated that “It’s unusual for cert to be granted unless there is at least one amicus brief, and often two or three or four, supporting the cert petition.”
Here are links to the October 19 and October 3 articles, which are accessible to Law360 subscribers.