Patricia A. Millett co-heads Akin Gump’s Supreme Court practice and has argued 26 cases (more than any woman in practice today, and second to only one other woman in history) before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ms. Millett’s areas of emphasis include statutory construction issues; administrative law; federalism and congressional power; religion (Free Exercise Clause, Establishment Clause, statutory protections); civil rights; Americans with Disabilities Act; access to information; Fourth Amendment; national security; and immigration law.
From August 1996 to September 2007, Ms. Millett served as an assistant to the solicitor general in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C. During that time, she argued 25 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and she briefed more than 50 cases.
Prior to her employment with the Office of the Solicitor General, Ms. Millett worked for four years in the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, Appellate Staff, where she briefed and argued more than 20 cases before the federal courts of appeals and, occasionally, state appellate courts. Before that, she clerked for two years for the late Judge Thomas Tang, on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. She also worked for two years in the litigation department of Miller & Chevalier in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Millett received her B.A. summa cum laude with highest distinction in political science in 1985 from the University of Illinois and her J.D. magna cum laude in 1988 from Harvard Law School. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. In 2004 she was awarded the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for representing the interests of the United States before the Supreme Court.
Ms. Millett regularly speaks on appellate advocacy issues in forums nationwide.
Ms. Millett's oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court include the following:
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U.S. v. Clintwood Elkhorn Mining Co., No. 07-308
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Blessing v. Freestone, No. 95-144
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Kalina v. Fletcher, No. 96-0792
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Ricci v. Village of Arlington Heights, No. 97-0501
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Bank of America v. 203 North LaSalle Street Partners, No. 97-1418
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INS v. Aguirre-Aguirre, No. 97-1754
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Norfolk Southern Ry. v. Shanklin, No. 99-0312
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Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., No. 99-536
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City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, No. 99-1030
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Shaw v. Murphy, No. 99-1613
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Young v. United States, No. 00-1567
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Devlin v. Scardaletti, No. 01-417
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Gonzaga Univ. v. Doe, No. 01-679
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Washington Dep’t of Human Servs. v. Keffeler, No. 01-1420
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Nguyen &Phan v. United States, No. 01-10873
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Illinois v. Lidster, No. 02-1060
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Office of Indep. Counsel/ Nat’l Archives & Records Admin. v. Favish, No. 02-954
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KP Permanent Make-Up v. Lasting Impressions, No. 03-409
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Small v. United States, No. 03-750; Gonzalez v. Crosby, No. 04-6432
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Dolan v. U.S. Postal Service, No. 04-848
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Arkansas Department of Human Servs. v. Ahlborn, No. 04-1506
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Washington v. Recuenco, No. 05-83
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Safeco Ins. Co. v. Burr, and Geico Ins. Co. v. Edo, Nos. 06-84, 06-100
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Fry v. Pliler, No. 06-5427
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Sole v. Wyner, No. 06-531