A new research paper from the University of Southern California, Finding Certainty in Cert: An Empirical Analysis of The Factors Involved in Supreme Court Certiorari Decisions From 2001-2015, examines the trajectory and rates of success of 93,000 petitions for certiorari filed between 2001 and the start of the 2015 Term, and the elements that have led to the granting of review during the Roberts Court. The authors empirically combine individual attorneys and law firms involved, and with such data, they proffer hypotheses as to “the agenda setting stage including the relationship between each of these factors and the likelihood of certiorari success. [They] also look[] to the micro-level to distinguish the individual actors that are most successful in the certiorari stage.”  While the Supreme Court grants fewer than one percent of the petitions it reviews, the study demonstrates that certain repeat-player lawyers have an outsized influence on the Court’s docket.

As noted in a recent Reuters article covering the study, the attorney with the highest rate of certiorari grants during this 2001-2015 period is the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic‘s co-director, Jeffrey Fisher, with a 29.1 percent success rate.  (The lawyer with next highest success rate, former Solicitor General Seth Waxman, had his petitions accepted 26.4 percent of the time.)  This statistic is a testament to the outstanding work the students in the clinic have been doing over the past decade-plus.  Congratulations to all!