The Atlantic carries this interesting story about how Tom Goldstein created a SCOTUS practice and how the established members of that bar have adopted some of his methods. (Basically, Goldstein identified circuit splits, cold called the parties' [lawyers], and offered to do the briefing at SCOTUS for free.) Goldstein's SCOTUSBlog is now ten years old.
[edited to suggest that Goldstein communicated with the parties counsel]
Cold-called the parties' LAWYERS, according to the story. Cold-calling the parties themselves would violate the prohibition against solicitation, would it not?
Posted by: David Yosifon | October 25, 2012 at 03:35 PM
He offered to brief for free, but if a significant motive was to develop a profitable Supreme Court practice, then 7.3 is arguably still implicated.
Posted by: David Yosifon | October 25, 2012 at 03:39 PM
David: No either way. See ULE (4th ed., 2010), ch. 11 (Solicitation of Clients: The Professional Obligation to Chase Ambulances), and esp. sec. 11.13 (Primus and Ohralik -- Two Different Levels of Constitutional Protection).
Posted by: Monroe Freedman | October 27, 2012 at 08:37 AM