Beth Brinkmann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beth S. Brinkmann (born September 24, 1958) is an American lawyer who served as the Assistant to the Solicitor General of the U.S. from 1993 until 2001. She has argued more than 20 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court both in that role and in her current role as a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of the firm Morrison & Foerster LLP.
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[edit] Early professional career
Brinkmann graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1980 with a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her law degree from Yale Law School in 1985. She clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in 1986 and also clerked for appeals-court judge Phyllis A. Kravitch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Brinkmann worked from 1991 until 1993 as an assistant federal public defender in Washington and worked for four years as an associate with the small San Francisco litigation firm of Turner & Brorby.
[edit] Work in the Solicitor General's office
Brinkmann became Assistant to the Solicitor General of the U.S. in December 1993, according to a March 22, 2003 article in the Journal of Appellate Practice and Process. She told that journal that she argued her first case before the Supreme Court on March 23, 1994. In 1993, Brinkmann became Assistant to the Solicitor General of the U.S., regularly arguing cases before the Supreme Court. "Every time you go up there, it is amazing, and an honor and privilege being there. You also feel very patriotic -- at least I do," Brinkmann told the National Journal in 2002.[1]
[edit] Private practice
After leaving the Solicitor General's office, Brinkmann joined Morrison & Foerster in early 2002. As a partner at Morrison & Foerster and the chair of the firm's Appellate Practice Group, Brinkmann has continued to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In a November 20, 2007 article in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Brinkmann told the paper that she had argued 22 cases before the Supreme Court in her career. Eighteen of those times were as a staff lawyer in the Solicitor General's office, Brinkmann told ABA Journal in an article that ran in the newsletter's March 2005 issue.[2]
[edit] Possible future federal judicial service
In the March 12, 2008 issue of The New Republic, writer Jeffrey Rosen floated the name of Brinkmann as a future federal appeals-court judge or Supreme Court justice, likening her to Chief Justice John G. Roberts by suggesting her as a possible "Democratic female John Roberts." Rosen also characterized Brinkmann as "moderate, pragmatic and pro-business."[3]
