Biography • Commercial Litigation

Carter G Phillips is the co-chair of the executive committee of Sidley Austin LLP, and a member of the firm's management committee. Mr Phillips was the managing partner of the firm's Washington, DC, office from 1995-2012. He served as a law clerk to both Judge Robert Sprecher on the United States Court of Appeals for the seventh circuit and Chief Justice Warren E Burger on the United States Supreme Court. Mr Phillips served as assistant to the solicitor general and argued nine cases on behalf of the federal government in the United States Supreme Court.

Since joining Sidley, Mr Phillips has argued 67 cases in the Supreme Court. His 76 arguments before that court are the most of any lawyer currently in private practice. Mr Phillips also has argued more than 100 cases in United States court of appeals, including at least one in every Circuit in the country, and 25 in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Mr Phillips is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. He serves on the board of governors of the Federal Circuit Bar Association, is a member of the Federal Circuit advisory council and was the chair of the council from 2003-2005, and is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society. He received the 2001 Rex Lee Advocacy Award, the Northwestern University Alumni Merit Award in 1998, the Northwestern University Alumni Service Award in 2006, the Ohio State Alumni Professional Achievement Award in 2007, and the Honorary Degree Doctor of Public Service from the Ohio State University in 2011. Mr Phillips also is a member (and former chairman) of the Dean's advisory committee of Northwestern University's School of Law, a member of the advisory committee of The Ohio State University Colleges of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the dean's advisory council of the University of California, Irvine's Donald Bren School of Law. He serves on the advisory committee of the Georgetown University Law Center's supreme court institute. He is also adjunct professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law, teaching a clinic seminar on Supreme Court practices.

Mr Phillips received his JD (magna cum laude, Order of the Coif) from Northwestern University School of Law in 1977. He received his MA from Northwestern University in 1975 and his BA (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from The Ohio State University in 1973.