Paul Wolfson

Paul R.Q. Wolfson is a partner in the firm’s Litigation/Controversy Department, and a co-chair of the Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation Practice. He is also a member of the Government and Regulatory Litigation Practice. He rejoined the firm in 2002. Mr. Wolfson’s practice focuses on Supreme Court and appellate litigation, and on advising clients on complex issues of federal law.

Mr. Wolfson has argued 21 cases in the United States Supreme Court and has also argued before seven federal courts of appeals. He is a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements, and served for two years as a member of an ABA Presidential Task Force on Federal Pleading Standards, examining the effect of the Twombly and  Iqbaldecisions. He also served two terms on the District of Columbia Board on Professional Responsibility.

Before rejoining the firm, Mr. Wolfson worked for eight years in the Solicitor General’s Office, where he received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for “exemplary representation of the United States before the Supreme Court.” After law school, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Byron White.

Mr. Wolfson has also represented numerous parties in patent litigation, including Monsanto Company in several successful defenses against challenges to its patents on genetically modified soybeans.

He successfully represented Rambus Inc. in its challenge to a ruling of the Federal Trade Commission that Rambus had violated the antitrust laws. And, he represented a Washington DC real estate developer in litigation in the DC trial and appellate courts over a shopping mall in Georgetown.

Mr. Wolfson is active in pro bono matters. In recent Supreme Court cases he has represented a Los Angeles family whose house was searched pursuant to an invalid warrant, and a group of scientists challenging a government background investigation.

He successfully represented Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina in a challenge to a state statute that barred funding to that organization, and obtained withholding of deportation for a Cameroonian dissident. He also represented the Texas chapter of the NAACP defending the constitutionality of the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.

Professional Activities :

• American Bar Association
• District of Columbia Bar Association
• American Bar Association Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements
• Chair, Amicus Brief Committee, ABA Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section

EDUCATION :

• JD, Yale Law School, 1987
• MPhil, University of Cambridge, Trinity College, 1984
• AB, Harvard University, 1982

ADMISSIONS : District of Columbia, United States Supreme Court.

GOVERNMENT EXPERIENCE : Department of Justice, Office of the Solicitor General, Assistant to the Solicitor General.