Profile: Carter G Phillips

Commercial Litigation

Biography: Commercial Litigation

Carter G Phillips is the managing partner of the Washington, DC office of Sidley Austin LLP and is a member of the firm's management committee. He served as a law clerk to both Judge Robert Sprecher on the US Court of Appeals for the seventh circuit and Chief Justice Warren E Burger on the United States Supreme Court. Mr Phillips served as assistant to the solicitor general for three years, during which time he argued nine cases on behalf of the federal government in the United States Supreme Court. Since joining Sidley, Mr Phillips has argued 47 cases in the Supreme Court, for a career total of 56 appearances and has argued more than 65 cases in other appellate courts. Examples of some of his cases are as follows: Tellabs, Inc v Makor Issues & Rights, 127 S Ct 2499 (2007); Norfolk Southern v Timothy Sorrell, 127 S Ct 799 (2007); Mohawk Industries v Williams, 126 S Ct 2016 (2006); eBay Inc v MercExchange, 126 S Ct 1837 (2006); IBP v Alvarez, 126 S Ct 514 (2006); and Muehler v Mena, 125 S Ct 1465 (2005).

Mr Phillips is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a member of the federal circuit advisory committee and was the chair of the committee from 2003 to 2005. Mr Phillips is a member of the Economic Club of Washington, DC, a trustee of the Federal City Council in Washington, a member (and former chairman) of the dean's advisory committee of Northwestern University's school of law and a member of the advisory committee of the Ohio State University Colleges of Arts and Sciences. Mr Phillips is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society and is on their publications committee as well as on the amicus curiae committee of the Federal Bar Association. Mr Phillips also serves on the board of directors of the Institute of Judicial Administration at New York University school of law and the advisory committee of the Georgetown University Law Center's Supreme Court Institute. Additionally, he is an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern University school of law, teaching a clinic seminar on Supreme Court practice.

Mr Phillips's practice has been featured in articles in the American Lawyer, Business Week, Legal Times, the National Law Journal, USA Today and Legal Business. In 2006, he was named one of the 'Top 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America' as chosen by the National Law Journal. The NLJ also named him a runner-up for its 2006 'Lawyer of the Year'. In September 2007, Mr Phillips received the Lewis F Powell Award for Business Advocacy given by the National Chamber Litigation Center, the public policy law firm of the US Chamber of Commerce.