Supreme Court Clinic Fellow
UNC School of Law students in the Supreme Court Clinic now have the guidance of an experienced appellate litigator dedicated to the clinic. Alex Boota, a former clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit who also practiced in an international law firm’s Supreme Court and appellate group, joined the UNC School of Law this fall as a fellow in the clinic.
Boota joins as the clinic begins its first year as part of the School’s clinical programs. Founded in 2019 by Dean Andy Hessick and Rick Simpson ’77 as the Supreme Court Program, the clinic is now directed by Simpson. Simpson served as an adjunct faculty member until this year when he became a full-time professor of the practice. Simpson has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, 10 federal courts of appeals and five state supreme courts, including the Supreme Court of North Carolina. His 2023 argument in McElrath v. Georgia resulted in a unanimous 2024 ruling for the clinic’s client and earned national attention.
“Becoming a clinic makes sense because the Supreme Court Program focused on representing clients, and teaching legal skills in connection with that,” Simpson said of the new formal affiliation with the School’s clinical programs. Bringing the program into Carolina Law’s broader clinical program also gives it access to shared staff and logistical support. “It’s been great to be part of that community,” added Simpson.
Boota brings additional appellate experience to the team. A 2020 Order of the Coif graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and former articles editor of the Virginia Law Review, he clerked for Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. of the Fourth Circuit. He then joined his firm’s Supreme Court and appellate practice, clerked for Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and returned to the firm before moving to Chapel Hill. He also holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College. Raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Boota said he wanted to continue Supreme Court work outside private practice and return to the South, where his family still lives.
In the clinic, Boota teaches students to identify cases that are strong candidates for Supreme Court review. Each student tracks new opinions from an assigned federal circuit and state supreme courts within the assigned circuit and flags potential candidates, which the class and professors then evaluate. The clinic also prepares amicus submissions to the Court. When the clinic accepts a case, students prepare the first draft of the submission and then work with Boota and Simpson through multiple revisions until the document is ready to file.
The clinic is now preparing its next filings: a cert petition developed with co-counsel and an amicus brief, both expected to be filed in December.
