Biography: Commercial Litigation

Carter G Phillips is the managing partner of the Washington, DC, office of Sidley Austin LLP and 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 62 cases in the Supreme Court (contributing to a career total of 71 appearances) and more than 80 cases in other appellate courts.

Representative cases have included Gross v FBL Financial Services (08-441); AT&T Corp v Hulteen (07-543); CSX Transportation v Georgia Board of Equalization (06-1287); 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 and 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. He received the 2001 Rex Lee Advocacy Award, the Northwestern University Alumni Merit Award in 1998, the Northwestern University Alumni Service Award in 2006 and the Ohio State Alumni Professional Achievement Award in 2007. He is a trustee of both the Federal City Council in Washington and the Supreme Court Historical Society, and is on their publications committee; and on the amicus curiae committee of the Federal Bar Association. Mr Phillips also is a member (and former chairman) of the dean's advisory committee of Northwestern University's School of Law, a member of the advisory committee of the Ohio State University Colleges of Arts and Sciences and a member of the dean's advisory council of the Irvine's Donald Bren School of Law at the University of California. He is on the board of directors of the Institute of Judicial Administration at New York University School of Law and serves on the advisory committee of the Georgetown University Law Center's Supreme Court Institute. He is also adjunct professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law, teaching a clinic seminar on Supreme Court practices.

Mr Phillips' 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 by the National Law Journal, who also named him as runner-up for its 2006 Lawyer of the Year, saying that in that year he 'became the 'go-to' attorney for corporations seeking Supreme Court relief, further elevating his stature within the small, but highly skilled, Supreme Court bar'. 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. In July 2008, he was named one of the 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years by the Legal Times. Recently, Chambers USA's Leading Lawyers for Business listed him in the top band of litigators in Washington, DC. Most recently, in 2010, he has been named one of The Decade's Most Influential Lawyers by The National Law Journal.

Mr Phillips received his JD (magna cum laude, Order of the Coif) from Northwestern University School of Law in 1977, his MA from Northwestern University in 1975 and his BA (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from the Ohio State University in 1973. His admissions include the US Supreme Court, District of Columbia and Illinois.