The quality of advocacy at the Supreme Court these days is quite high. “We have an extraordinary group of lawyers who appear very regularly before us,” Justice Elena Kagan said in 2014 at a Justice Department event.

But there was, she said, one exception. “Case in and case out,” she said, “the category of litigant who is not getting great representation at the Supreme Court are criminal defendants.”

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The cream of the Supreme Court bar does occasionally handle cases for criminal defendants, often without charge. But there is only one expert Supreme Court advocate whose practice is largely devoted to criminal defense: Jeffrey L. Fisher of Stanford Law School.

“It seems safe to say,” Professor Crespo wrote, “that Professor Fisher is the expert Supreme Court criminal defense bar — if only one person a bar could make.”