The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Judd Littleton is the Co-head of Sullivan & Cromwell’s Supreme Court and appellate practice. He represents clients in high-stakes appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court and federal and state appellate courts across the country, as well as in litigation challenging federal agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Judd also regularly advises clients on complex, strategic legal issues arising from litigation, new laws or regulations, or government investigations. Before joining the firm, Judd served in the Civil Division of the DOJ, where he received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the department’s second-highest award. Judd also served as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General, where he worked on numerous cases before the Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals. He clerked for Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., of the Supreme Court and for Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the DC Circuit. Judd is a member of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court and the Supreme Court Historical Society. He’s been recognized by Lawdragon as a Leading Litigator in America (Appellate/Supreme Court) since 2023 and by The National Law Journal as one of its 2019 DC Rising Stars.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
S&C’s Supreme Court and appellate practice, which I head alongside former Acting Solicitor General Jeff Wall, handles challenging and high-profile appeals before the Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, and state appellate courts. We also provide counseling on complex legal issues, whether at earlier stages of the litigation or before litigation even begins. The work entails briefing and arguing appeals on the merits, motions practice, petitions for review and interlocutory appeals, amicus curiae briefs, and administrative appeals before various regulatory bodies. It frequently involves working closely and cooperatively with in-house counsel, trial teams, and large joint-defense groups.
What types of clients do you represent?
I represent a wide variety of clients, from leading multinational companies and financial institutions to industry groups, trade associations, and individuals. Some of my current and former clients in this practice include AB Inbev, Bayer, BP, JPMorgan Chase, Standard Chartered Bank, Volkswagen, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Blockchain Association, the Bank Policy Institute, and the Managed Funds Association.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
Both because of the nature of appellate practice and S&C’s generalist model, the cases I work on are infinitely varied. The complex legal issues that cross my desk span all practice areas and range from civil Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) litigation to multibillion-dollar contract disputes and high-profile APA cases. In one notable example in the past year, I successfully represented Bayer in an M&A-related dispute with Merck that sought to shift massive liability for consumer talc products claims to Bayer. The en banc Delaware Supreme Court agreed with our arguments and summarily affirmed the dismissal of Merck’s lawsuit, relieving Bayer of liability for the disputed talc product claims.
Clients have been increasingly turning to our Supreme Court and appellate team to handle critical challenges to administrative regulations that pose existential risk to the regulated community, and I have taken a lead role in a number of these challenges. Some recent examples include representing the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable in their successful challenge to the FTC’s ban on noncompete agreements. We secured the first nationwide decision setting the rule aside as unlawful. Other examples include representing the Blockchain Association, the Managed Funds Association, and other industry groups in ongoing challenges to various SEC regulations, and our representation of the Bank Policy Institute in its challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s open-banking rule.
How did you choose this practice area?
I was one of those nerds who really loved law school and wrestling with tough legal issues in all of my classes. Administrative Law was my favorite, and I do a lot of that work now. I also had a really great experience in our Supreme Court Clinic, so I was pretty focused on the appellate world.
I was fortunate enough to clerk for two amazing judges and work in two positions at the DOJ: the Solicitor General’s Office and the Civil Division. In all of these positions, I constantly dealt with complex legal matters, strategic questions, and the core skill of developing and articulating clear arguments. At the end of the day, that’s what I loved most, so I was very much drawn to continuing that work in private practice.
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common activities in your day-to-day work?
It’s hard to say there’s a “typical” day given that the cases we tend to work on are infinitely varied and complex, so every day is different depending on the problem of the moment and what kind of case we’re working on. I think that’s partly due to appellate practice in general, but also to S&C and our generalist model.
That said, I love writing and spend a lot of my day drafting, editing, and re-editing written work. That can be in the form of briefs, memos, or emails to clients. I also spend a lot of time talking through legal issues with both colleagues and clients, which is how we figure out what our arguments are going to be, and those discussions are something that I really like about the practice.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
I believe you can always improve your writing; I spend a lot of time doing that and think everyone should be doing the same. Lots of schools have Supreme Court or appellate clinics, which can be really great experiences. You get to learn from practitioners what it’s like to craft a brief that’s being filed in court, which can be much different from any other type of writing you’re doing in law school or anywhere else. I also believe you can really only learn (and learn well) by doing something, and these clinics give you a really good opportunity to do that.
Moot court is also great because it gets you up on your feet and used to the back-and-forth of an appellate-style argument. It helps you learn to think on your feet, which is another skill that can always be refined with practice.
What do you like best about your practice area?
One thing that I really love about appellate practice is its generalist nature. We aren’t narrowly confined to one type of case, subject matter, or expertise. That’s true of most people at S&C, but particularly in the appellate practice. The cases that I’ve handled over the past few years range from emissions violations and ATA cases to disputes arising out of multibillion-dollar merger agreements. And that’s before you get to talking about the regulations we challenge under the APA. There’s a huge variety of interesting subject matter and areas of law that I get to learn about, study up on, and eventually become fluent in.
A particular perk about doing this at S&C is that I get to work with my partners, who are among the best legal minds in the country on these diverse issues. Being able to draw on the expertise of others at the firm—a critical feature of our generalist and collaborative model—is part of what makes it really fun.
What misconceptions exist about your practice area?
I think the biggest misconception is that appellate lawyers work exclusively in appellate courts. While a big part of the job is doing just that, at S&C, it’s really much broader. We also help craft the briefs and legal arguments for cases at trial or at the district court level. And many of our APA litigations are filed initially in district courts. More broadly, anything that involves really thorny, strategic legal issues— statutory interpretation, new regulatory initiatives, those sorts of things—we get involved in. We frequently advise clients about the difficult legal issues that they’re facing and trying to navigate before those issues are even connected to any live litigation.
What kinds of experience can summer associates gain at this practice area at your firm?
At S&C, we make a very real point of considering summer associates as equivalent to first-year associates for purposes of the work they do. For appellate work, depending on the status and stage of a particular appeal or case, you’ll likely conduct research and draft analysis that will inform what we say in a brief. In some instances, you may even draft a section which—after revision, of course—will actually make it into the brief. This past summer, we had summer associates who did the entire first draft of a brief that was ultimately filed in a state supreme court. I certainly didn’t get to do that in my summer associate jobs, and I don’t think there are many who do. In all cases, you are as much a part of the team as anyone else, and we all work very closely together, from the top to bottom of the signature block. I think this emphasis from the firm’s perspective can be really advantageous and sets S&C apart from other firms.
What is your routine for preparing for oral arguments?
The first thing I do is reread the briefs—which usually were filed months earlier—from cover to cover, and I write down every single question that I have or could imagine someone else asking. Then I read the important cases that are in the briefs and do the same thing, creating a massive list of potential questions. Next, I work with the team to develop answers to each of them. Usually the initial answers are very long, so we work to condense them to the key points I’ll want to get out. I always try to do at least two moot courts before an argument. These should be intense: Lawyers should grill me and, ideally, ask very aggressive and tough questions. The goal is always for the moots to be much harder than the actual argument. By the end of all this, I’ll have my intro memorized, I will try to have the three or four key points that I want to make sure I say before I sit down, and I’ll have well-thought-out points in response to the questions that I think are going to come up.