Small Posse Of Supreme Court Lawyers Has Outsize Influence

In a special report, Reuters found that a small pool of lawyers have built a cottage industry representing business interests in getting cases accepted by the top U.S. court . According to the Reuters report, 66 of the 17,000 lawyers who petitioned the Supreme Court in the last nine years have succeeded at getting their clients’ cases heard at least six times more often than all the others. Though they comprise less than one percent of attorneys filing appeals to the Supreme Court, these 66 were involved in 43 percent of the cases the Court took up from 2004 to 2012. Of the 66, 51 worked for law firms primarily representing corporate interests. These lawyers, “first among equals,” Reuters says, are imposing a disproportionate influence on the Court by their part in determining what cases are being heard.