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.
The Neal Katyal picture is a frighteningly close close-up. The media people screwed that one up.
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.
why is 45 the age limit of being "young"?? that is old in my book.
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.