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Attorney Carter Phillips to Address Northwestern Law Grads

Distinguished alumnus has argued record number of cases before Supreme Court

CHICAGO --- Carter G. Phillips, partner and chair of the executive committee at Sidley Austin LLC, will deliver the main convocation address at Northwestern University School of Law, his alma mater, at 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 16, at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St., Chicago.

Phillips, a 1977 graduate of the law school and an accomplished lawyer and professor, is one of its most distinguished alumni. Since joining Sidley, he has argued 69 cases in the Supreme Court. His total 78 arguments before that Court are the most of any lawyer currently in private practice. In addition to his responsibilities at Sidley where he continues his work in their appellate practice, Phillips is an adjunct professor in Northwestern Law’s Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Appellate Advocacy Center.

Phillips was the managing partner of Sidley’s Washington, D.C., office from 1995 to 2012. He served as a law clerk to both Judge Robert Sprecher on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger on the United States Supreme Court. Phillips served as assistant to the solicitor general and argued nine cases on behalf of the federal government in the United States Supreme Court. Phillips also has argued more than 100 cases in United States courts of appeals, including at least one in every Circuit in the country, and 25 in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Phillips was named to the 2013 National Law Journal list of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.” He was also named one of the 2012 Lawyers of the Year in the area of Litigation-Regulatory Enforcement by Best Lawyers. Washingtonian magazine named Phillips to its 2013 list of Washington’s Best Lawyers as one of the region’s “best legal minds” for his Supreme Court practice. He has been listed in the top 10 among Super Lawyers magazine’s Top 100 lawyers in Washington, from 2007-2013 based on a vote of peers, and also earned a spot on Law360’s list of Appellate MVPs that year. Phillips was honored as one of “The Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers” in 2010 by the National Law Journal.