{"id":2963,"date":"2026-03-16T09:50:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/march-2026\/?p=2963"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:02:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:02:29","slug":"a-supremely-impactful-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/a-supremely-impactful-program\/","title":{"rendered":"A Supremely Impactful Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By: Michele Lynn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its launch in 2019, the UNC School of Law Supreme Court Program<\/a> 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,<\/em> a case argued and decided in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program is the brainchild of Interim Dean Andy Hessick<\/a> and adjunct professor of law Rick Simpson<\/a> \u201977, 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 <\/a>\u201919 or adjunct professor Elizabeth Simpson<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d said Simpson. \u201cThe students may write memos about the potential cases, and the class will discuss the merits of the cases.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Class members also work as teams\u00a0preparing submissions to the Court, which may include submissions for parties to the cases\u00a0and amicus\u00a0briefs on behalf of organizations that\u00a0aren’t\u00a0parties to a case but are interested in it. The Supreme Court Program obtained a \u201cgrant\u201d from the Court in\u00a0McElrath v. Georgia,<\/em>\u00a0which was\u00a0a double jeopardy case, and\u00a0ultimately a\u00a09-0 decision reversing\u00a0the Georgia Supreme Court\u2019s\u00a0previous\u00a0decision.\u00a0In that case, in addition to working on written submissions, students suggested questions to Simpson as he was preparing for oral\u00a0arguments.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Simpson, the brief drafting process is quite intense, with each brief going through multiple drafts. \u201cNo matter how good the first draft is and no matter who wrote it, including me, the final version doesn\u2019t look like the original because the class goes through an intense editing process,\u201d said Simpson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Adam Gillette ’23<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As a student at Carolina Law, Adam C. Gillette \u201923 co-authored the cert petition in the McElrath case. He still regularly uses skills he learned in the program. \u201cHessick 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,\u201d said Gillette, who is now an associate at Williams & Connolly.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d said Gillette. \u201cAnd 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.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This practice is key to the success of the program. \u201cIn this program, the students start something brand new, face a steep learning curve, and are so good by the end of the course,\u201d said Hessick. \u201cWe had the direct success in the McElrath case which changed the life of someone who gained treatment instead of serving time in prison.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hessick also notes that theories and language from the program\u2019s briefs have found their way into the Courts’ opinions. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting for students to see words that they wrote be included in a Supreme Court opinion,\u201d said Hessick. \u201cThey have helped fashion law.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cThis can be a demanding class at times, especially when you’re working with deadlines,\u201d said Fisher. \u201cBut students gain skills and knowledge that will benefit them throughout their careers, regardless of what they do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s cases.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fellow will inject more energy and enthusiasm into the program,\u201d said Hessick. \u201cSince 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.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In six years, the UNC School of Law Supreme Court Program has filed more than 30 briefs before the nation’s highest court and secured a unanimous 9-0 victory, all with students doing the real work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2963"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3388,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963\/revisions\/3388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/spring-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}