By: Michele Lynn
Since its launch in 2019, the UNC School of Law Supreme Court Program has offered Carolina Law students the opportunity to learn the mechanics of Supreme Court representation. Each semester, a class of up to eight students has the hands-on opportunity to identify possible candidates for review to prepare submissions to the Court, which may include a writ for certiorari, briefs in opposition, amicus briefs, and merits briefs. In just six years, the program has filed more than 30 briefs before the United States Supreme Court and secured a unanimous 9-0 victory in McElrath v. Georgia, a case argued and decided in 2024.
The program is the brainchild of Interim Dean Andy Hessick and adjunct professor of law Rick Simpson ’77, a partner with Wiley Rein, LLP and is team-taught, originally and in and in most semesters Simpson and Hessick. In more recent semesters, Simpson has been joined by adjunct professor Elizabeth Fisher ’19 or adjunct professor Elizabeth Simpson.
At the beginning of the semester, the professors help students understand the characteristics that make a case a candidate for review by the Supreme Court, which takes a tiny fraction of cases it is asked to review. The students learn how to search for and evaluate cases and to use research databases.
“The students operate like a small law firm, with each student searching for cases, and then reporting in class about why they think suggested cases might be a good fit,” said Simpson. “The students may write memos about the potential cases, and the class will discuss the merits of the cases.”
Class members also work as teams preparing submissions to the Court, which may include submissions for parties to the cases and amicus briefs on behalf of organizations that aren’t parties to a case but are interested in it. The Supreme Court Program obtained a “grant” from the Court in McElrath v. Georgia, which was a double jeopardy case, and ultimately a 9-0 decision reversing the Georgia Supreme Court’s previous decision. In that case, in addition to working on written submissions, students suggested questions to Simpson as he was preparing for oral arguments.
According to Simpson, the brief drafting process is quite intense, with each brief going through multiple drafts. “No matter how good the first draft is and no matter who wrote it, including me, the final version doesn’t look like the original because the class goes through an intense editing process,” said Simpson.
As a student at Carolina Law, Adam C. Gillette ’23 co-authored the cert petition in the McElrath case. He still regularly uses skills he learned in the program. “Hessick and Simpson pushed us to develop legal reasoning that would persuade the Supreme Court, where cases are almost always resolved on fine distinctions in the law,” said Gillette, who is now an associate at Williams & Connolly.
“I use those legal-reasoning skills today in practice: When a partner asks for my suggestions for how to plead a claim or respond to an opponent’s argument, often the first steps toward the answer are to review dozens of cases, distill a handful of legal principles, and write my analysis,” said Gillette. “And after the research and analysis, when drafting an argument to the court, the distance between a good option and the better one is often just a few words or the turn of a phrase. The skill to know the difference is one I’ll spend the rest of my career developing, but the Supreme Court Program was where I first got to practice it in the real world.”
This practice is key to the success of the program. “In this program, the students start something brand new, face a steep learning curve, and are so good by the end of the course,” said Hessick. “We had the direct success in the McElrath case which changed the life of someone who gained treatment instead of serving time in prison.”
Hessick also notes that theories and language from the program’s briefs have found their way into the Courts’ opinions. “It’s exciting for students to see words that they wrote be included in a Supreme Court opinion,” said Hessick. “They have helped fashion law.”
Fisher said that the program gives students a look into what it’s like to represent a client and the obligations that go along with that. “This can be a demanding class at times, especially when you’re working with deadlines,” said Fisher. “But students gain skills and knowledge that will benefit them throughout their careers, regardless of what they do.”
To strengthen the program even further, Carolina Law is currently reviewing applications for a fellow who will begin work this fall. The fellow, whose tasks will include supervising students, drafting and revising court filings, and client recruitment, will have the opportunity to serve as counsel of record in one or more of the program’s cases.
“The fellow will inject more energy and enthusiasm into the program,” said Hessick. “Since the qualifications for the position include having some Supreme Court experience, the fellow will be well-situated to bring in new strategies and thoughts about cases and arguments we can make.”
