Up & Coming Lawyers 2007: Kannon Shanmugam

When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its unanimous ruling in Weyerhaeuser v. Ross-Simmons, 127 S. Ct. 1069, on Feb. 20, it marked the fourth Supreme Court win in five chances for attorney Kannon Shanmugam.

Not bad for a 34-year-old.

Shanmugam is an assistant to Solicitor General

Until a recent batch of new hires, Shanmugam was the youngest of the 16 assistants in Clement's office.

Among his Supreme Court victories are a ruling making it more difficult for plaintiffs to survive motions to dismiss class actions (Tellabs v. Makor Rights, 127 S. Ct. 2499), holding that the Eighth Amendment does not allow defendants facing the death penalty to introduce new evidence during sentencing (Oregon v. Guzek, 126 S Ct. 1226), and a ruling that police have a right to handcuff suspects during a search and ask about their immigration status (Muehler v. Mena, 125 S. Ct. 1465).

Precociousness is nothing new to Shanmugam, the son of Indian immigrants who settled in Lawrence, Kan. He went to Harvard at age 16 and, following his freshman year, secured a summer internship in the Lawrence office of Judge Deanell Tacha of the 10th Circuit.

At the time, Shanmugam was torn between journalism and law, but Judge Tacha "convinced me that law was something I wanted to pursue. It was quite something at that stage of my life to see how a judge operates."

He majored in classics at Harvard, graduating summa cum laude in 1993, then studied classics for two more years as a Marshall scholar at the University of Oxford before returning to Harvard Law School and graduating magna cum laude in 1998.

Next came clerkships with Judge J. Michael Luttig of the 4th Circuit and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, "so the natural next step was to be an appellate lawyer," Shanmugam said.

He joined the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C. and worked primarily with former Solicitor General and independent counsel Kenneth Starr on a variety of appellate matters, including a challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

In 2004, he took a position in the Solicitor General's office conducting research and writing amici briefs, memos and certiorari motions. But the high points are when he goes before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I'm always nervous before a Supreme Court argument," he said. "It does get easier on the nerves the more often you do it, but it's always a challenge."

Shanmugam's father was a professor at the University of Kansas, where he taught electrical engineering, and the son says that scientific acumen runs in the family.

"I'm the fruit that fell farthest from the tree," he said with a laugh.

Nevertheless, the analytical skills of appellate lawyers operating in the highest judicial venue in the country also require an exacting, almost scientific, grasp of complexities.

"I think the great thing about appellate work is that it gives you an opportunity to confront discrete legal questions," Shanmugam said, "and every one of them is a puzzle."

But there is another reason why he loves his work.

"It's a tremendous honor to serve in this office. It's a chance to serve my country."

Credit: Dick Dahl