In a town rife with lawyers, they are called the legal elites. They are the lawyers who argue before the Supreme Court, who engage in high-pressure but immeasurably coveted work. And a kind of warfare goes on among them. And in ways subtle or not, the lawyers are always looking to snare a high court case and add another notch to their belts.
Some lawyers strategically seek out cases in lower courts that appear headed for the justices.
Some write letters to litigants or arrange go-betweens. Tribe, who will appear before the justices at least twice this term, has 21 high court arguments to his credit. When more than one lawyer has been involved in a case in a lower court, deciding who gets to argue before the justices can be brutal. Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, tried to persuade Jean Dubofsky, the Colorado lawyer who had argued the case in state court, to turn it over to a law professor who had helped on the case and had more experience before the justices. But as you and I have both observed several times, this is a difficult case, it could go either way, and the outcome may well depend on oral argument.