News

Attorney Carter G. Phillips (JD ’77) to Address Northwestern Law Grads

May 02, 2014

Veteran Supreme Court litigator Carter G. Phillips (JD ’77) will deliver the commencement address at the Law School’s 154th graduation convocation ceremony on Friday, May 16, at 1:30 p.m. at the Chicago Theatre. 

Phillips, partner and chair of the executive committee at Sidley Austin, has argued 78 cases before the Supreme Court, more than any lawyer currently in private practice. 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.

A member of Northwestern’s Law Board since 1998, Phillips also teaches in Northwestern Law’s Supreme Court Clinic, part of the Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Appellate Advocacy Center.

Phillips was the managing partner of Sidley's Washington, DC, 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 also served as Assistant to the Solicitor General and argued nine cases on behalf of the federal government in the United States Supreme Court.