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 Paul D. Clement

in the Department of Justice, a position that provides regular opportunities to argue cases before the top court on behalf of the U.S. government. But seldom have the government's cases been made by a lawyer so young.

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).