Neal K Katyal

Practice Areas

Neal Katyal, the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, has argued more Supreme Court cases than any attorney of color in U.S. history, breaking Thurgood Marshall’s record of 32 arguments some years ago. At this point, he has argued 50 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, more than all but a few lawyers in history. In the most recent 2022-23 term alone, Neal singlehandedly argued five separate cases at the U.S. Supreme Court – nearly 10% of the docket: Tyler v. Hennepin County, Coinbase v. Bielski, Delaware v. Pennsylvania, Cruz v. Arizona, and Moore v. Harper.

Neal spent much of the last three years working pro bono as Special Prosecutor in the George Floyd murder. He, along with a team of seven associates, developed the legal strategy for the trial and handled all the motions. Derek Chauvin appealed his conviction, and Neal argued it in January 2023. In April 2023, the Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Chauvin’s sentence in a 50 page opinion. He is now representing the prosecution in the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Neal has extensive experience in matters of constitutional, technology, corporate, patent, securities, criminal, employment, and tribal law. In the past year, three multi-billion wins stand out. In September 2022, in the “Citibank miswire case,” Neal secured victory in one of the most widely watched financial services cases. The Second Circuit unanimously reversed SDNY Judge Furman’s ruling, refusing to let Citibank get a miswired US$1 billion back. In March 2023, the Hawaii Supreme Court reversed the largest judgment in Hawaii history against Bristol Myers Squibb and Sanofi regarding Plavix. The trial court awarded US$834 million plus fees and interest, totaling well over US$1 billion.

In April 2023, Neal won Myers v. California Board, a long-running case saving Blue Cross US$4.3 billion in retroactive taxes. Neal is also currently running all appellate and legal strategy for Google in the sprawling antitrust cases around the country. In March 2023, he notched a big victory, persuading the Ninth Circuit to hear the class certification appeal.

In the past, Neal has won some of the most groundbreaking cases in the United States. His very first argument, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, struck down President Bush’s military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. As former Acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger put it, “Hamdan is simply the most important decision on presidential power and the rule of law ever. Ever.” Neal has argued major Supreme Court cases on a variety of issues, such as his successful defense of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, his victorious defense of former Attorney General John Ashcroft for alleged abuses in the war on terror, his unanimous victory against eight States who sued the nation’s leading power plants for contributing to global warming, his attack on President Trump’s “muslim ban,” and a variety of other matters. As Acting Solicitor General, Neal was responsible for representing the federal government in all appellate matters before the Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeal throughout the nation. Neal was also the only head of the Solicitor General’s Office to argue in the Federal Circuit Court of appeals, on the important question of whether the human genome was patentable.

Neal has published dozens of scholarly articles in law journals, as well as many op-ed articles in such publications as the New York Times and the Washington Post, and has testified numerous times before the House of Representatives and Senate. He also is a law professor at Georgetown University and was one of the youngest ever to receive tenure.

Among other accolades, Neal was named American Lawyer’s grand prize winner for Litigator of the Year for 2017, which is chosen from all the litigators in the US; was named Appellate Attorney of the Year for 2018 and 2019 by Benchmark Litigation; was recognized as one of the 50 people shaking up U.S. politics by Politico; and was honored by the Financial Times as a top innovator.

Neal is the recipient of the very highest award given to a civilian by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Edmund Randolph Award, which the Attorney General presented to him in 2011. The Chief Justice of the United States appointed him in 2011 (and again in 2014) to the Advisory Committee on Federal Appellate Rules. Neal was named as one of the 500 Leading Lawyers by LawDragon Magazine (one of four lawyers so named for every single year since 2005 to 2023); the Champion of Law award by the National Judicial College (2003); one of the 500 Most Influential People in Washington DC by Washingtonian Magazine (2022 and 2023); Winner of the Branton prize from the Washington Lawyer’s Committee (2021); Appellate MVP by Law360 numerous times; winner of Financial Times Innovative Lawyer Award in two different categories (both private and public law) (2017), one of GQ’s Men of the Year (2017), 40 Most Influential Lawyers of the Last Decade Nationwide by National Law Journal (2010), and 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers Over the Last 30 Years by Legal Times (2008). Neal also won the National Law Journal’s pro bono award in 2004. He has also performed on Netflix’s House of Cards and Showtime’s Billions (where he played himself in both).

In 2021, Neal was named a Trustee of Dartmouth College. In 2022, he was named a Trustee of the Whitney Museum in New York City.