Neal Katyal

Neal Kumar Katyal (born March 12, 1970) is an American appellate lawyer and professor of law. He is a partner at the Hogan Lovells law firm and is the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law at Georgetown University Law Center.^[2][3] During the Obama administration, Katyal served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States from May 2010^[4] until June 2011. Previously, Katyal served as a lawyer in the Solicitor General's office and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General in the United States Department of Justice.

Neal Katyal
Katyal in 2023
Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States
In office June 9, 2011 – August 26, 2011
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Leondra Kruger (acting)
Succeeded by	Sri Srinivasan
In office February 3, 2009 – May 17, 2010
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Daryl Joseffer
Succeeded by	Leondra Kruger (acting)
Solicitor General of the United States
Acting May 17, 2010 – June 9, 2011
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Elena Kagan
Succeeded by	Donald B. Verrilli Jr.
Personal details
Born	Neal Kumar Katyal (1970-03-12) March 12, 1970 (age 54) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Democratic^[1]
Relatives	Sonia Katyal (sister)
Education	Dartmouth College (BA) Yale University (JD)
Neal Katyal's voice Neal Katyal's opening statements to the Supreme Court in Babcock v. Kijakazi Recorded October 13, 2021

Katyal has argued more cases in the Supreme Court of the United States than any other minority group lawyer.^[5] He has described himself as an "extremist centrist".^[6]

Early life and education

Katyal was born on March 12, 1970,^{[citation needed]} in Chicago, Illinois, to immigrant parents originally from India.^[7][8] His mother is a pediatrician and his father, who died in 2005, was an engineer. Katyal's sister, Sonia, is also an attorney and teaches law at University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He studied at Loyola Academy, a Jesuit Catholic high school in Wilmette, Illinois. He graduated in 1991 from Dartmouth College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Nu fraternity and the Dartmouth Forensic Union.^[9]

Katyal then attended Yale Law School.^[9] He was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and studied under Akhil Amar and Bruce Ackerman, with whom he published articles in law review and political opinion journals in 1995 and 1996. After receiving his JD in 1995, Katyal clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and then Justice Stephen Breyer of the United States Supreme Court.^[10]

Career

President Bill Clinton commissioned Katyal to write a report on the need for more legal pro bono work.^[11] In 1999 he drafted special counsel regulations, which guided the Mueller investigation of the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.^[12] He also represented Vice President Al Gore as co-counsel in Bush v. Gore, and represented the deans of most major private law schools in Grutter v. Bollinger.

While serving at the Justice Department, Katyal argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court, including his successful defense (by an 8–1 decision) of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in Northwest Austin v. Holder.^[13] Katyal also successfully argued in favor of the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, and won a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court defending former Attorney General John Ashcroft against alleged abuses of civil liberties in the war on terror in Ashcroft v. al-Kidd. Katyal is also the only head of the Solicitor General's office to argue in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.^[14]

As Acting Solicitor General, Katyal succeeded Elena Kagan, whom President Barack Obama chose to replace the retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens.^[15]

On May 24, 2011, speaking as Acting Solicitor General, Katyal delivered the keynote speech at the Department of Justice's Great Hall marking Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Developing comments he had posted officially on May 20,^[16] Katyal issued the Justice Department's first public confession of its 1942 ethics lapse in arguing the Hirabayashi and Korematsu cases in the US Supreme Court, which had resulted in upholding the internment of American citizens of Japanese descent. He called those prosecutions – which were only vacated in the 1980s – "blots" on the reputation of his office, which the Supreme Court explicitly considers as deserving of "special credence" when arguing cases, and "an important reminder" of the need for absolute candor in arguing the United States government's position on every case.^[17] Katyal also lectured at Fordham Law School concerning that decision.^[18]

Katyal was critical of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.^[19] While teaching at Georgetown University Law Center for two decades,^[3] he was lead counsel for the Guantanamo Bay detainees in the Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), which held that Guantanamo military commissions set up by the George W. Bush administration to try detainees "violate both the UCMJ and the four Geneva Conventions."^[20]

Upon leaving the Obama Administration, Katyal returned to Georgetown University Law Center, but also became a partner at the global law firm Hogan Lovells.^[21] He specializes in constitutional law, national security, criminal defense, and intellectual property law, as well as running the appellate practice once run by John Roberts. During law school Katyal clerked one summer at Hogan Lovells, where he worked for Roberts before Roberts's nomination to the US Supreme Court.^[22]

In 2015, Katyal had a cameo performed in the third season of the American television series House of Cards, portraying a lawyer arguing a case in the Supreme Court .^[23]

In 2017, The American Lawyer magazine named Katyal its Grand Prize Litigator of the Year for 2016 and 2017.^[24]

Katyal has been criticized for filing briefs taking anti-union positions in two Supreme Court cases, Janus v. AFSCME. and Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis.^{[citation needed]} Katyal's employer, Hogan Lovells, characterized Katyal's successes in these cases as a "major win for employers."^[25][26]

In 2020, Katyal represented Nestlé and Cargill at the Supreme Court in Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe, a class-action suit brought by former enslaved children who were kidnapped and forced to work on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast.^[27][28] Katyal's argument that Nestlé and Cargill should not be held liable for their use of child slave labor because the corporation that supplied Zyklon B to the Nazis to kill Jews and other minorities in extermination camps was not indicted at the Nuremberg trials received considerable criticism from liberal publications like The New Republic.^[29][30]

In 2021, Katyal represented financial giant Citigroup in their efforts to recoup a mistaken transfer of $900 million to creditors of Revlon Inc.^[31] He also worked with the prosecution team in State v. Chauvin.^[32]

As of May 2021,^[update] Katyal is a board member of Chamath Palihapitiya's venture capital firm Social Capital.^[33]

In 2022, Katyal argued for the respondents in Moore v. Harper before the Supreme Court, a case involving election law, redistricting and the independent state legislature theory.^[34] The court rejected the independent legislature theory and thus upheld Katyal's position by a 6–3 vote.

Also in 2022, Katyal represented Johnson & Johnson in a civil suit against the company for selling talcum baby powder contaminated with carcinogens. His billing rate for this was $2,465 per hour.^[35]

Political positions

Katyal endorsed President Donald Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court in an op-ed to The New York Times.^[36] When that newspaper's public editor criticized the op-ed for failing to disclose Katyal had active cases being considered by the Court, Katyal responded that it would have been obvious he always has cases being heard by the Supreme Court.^[37] Katyal formally introduced Gorsuch on the first day of his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings.^[38]

In addition to Gorsuch, Katyal spoke highly of Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.^[39] In multiple tweets that were cited by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in favor of Kavanaugh's confirmation,^[40] Katyal praised Kavanaugh's "credentials [and] hardworking nature",^[41] and described his "mentoring and guidance" of female law clerks as "a model for all of us in the legal profession".^[42] Katyal has also called Kavanaugh "incredibly likable".^[43]

Honors and awards

The US Justice Department awarded Katyal the Edmund Randolph Award, the highest honor the department can bestow on a civilian. The National Law Journal named Katyal its runner-up for "Lawyer of the Year" in 2006 and in 2004 awarded him its Pro Bono award.^[44][45] American Lawyer Magazine considered him one of the top 50 litigators nationally.^[46] Washingtonian Magazine named him one of the 30 best living Supreme Court advocates;^[47]

Personal life

Katyal is married to Joanna Rosen, a physician.^[48][49] His brother-in-law is Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.^[50] His sister Sonia Katyal is the Chancellor's Professor of Law and co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology at UC Berkeley.^[51]

Katyal attended Burning Man 2023, during which heavy rainfall caused flash flooding. He hiked six miles in the mud to get out of the festival, which he called "incredibly harrowing".^[52]

Works

• Katyal, Neal (2019). Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump. Mariner. ISBN 978-0358391173.

See also

• Barack Obama Supreme Court candidates
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 2)

References

1. Shiffman, John (December 8, 2014). "The Echo Chamber". Reuters. from the original on July 3, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2017.
2. "Profile Neal Katyal – Georgetown Law". from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
3. . Archived from the original on December 9, 2014.
4. Rajghatta, Chidanand (May 19, 2010). "PIO Neal Katyal poised to become US solicitor general". The Times of India. Times News Network. from the original on May 22, 2010. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
5. Weiss, Debra Cassens (December 1, 2017). "BigLaw partner breaks a record held by Thurgood Marshall". ABA Journal. from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
6. Haniffa, Aziz (March 18, 2019). . IndiaAbroad.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
7. Furlong, Lisa. "Neal Kumar Katyal '91 A litigator on arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court". Dartmouth Alumni Magazine. from the original on September 25, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
8. "Politico 50: Neal Katyal". Politico. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
9. Katyal, Neal Kumar. "Curriculum vitae" (PDF). Georgetown University Law Center. (PDF) from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
10. "Neal K. Katyal". law.georgetown.edu. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
11. "Remarks to Representatives of the Legal Community" (PDF). Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents. 35 (29). U.S. Government Publishing Office: 1430. July 20, 1999. (PDF) from the original on March 10, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2017.
12. Katyal, Neal K. (February 21, 2019). "Opinion | The Mueller Report Is Coming. Here's What to Expect". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. from the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
13. "Neal Katyal's Sentimental Send-Off". from the original on July 2, 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2011.
14. Frankel, Alison (April 1, 2011). "Gene Case Brings Out a Big Gun". Corporate Counsel. from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2014.
15. Law Prof Who Proposed US Court to Try Gitmo Detainees Gets DOJ Nod 2009-01-25 at the Wayback Machine, ABA Journal, January 21, 2009.
16. Katyal, Neal (May 20, 2011). "Confession of Error: The Solicitor General's Mistakes During the Japanese-American Internment Cases". U.S. Department of Justice. from the original on January 18, 2018. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
17. Savage, David G. (May 24, 2011), "U.S. official cites misconduct in Japanese American internment cases", The Los Angeles Times, from the original on June 9, 2011, retrieved February 3, 2012.
18. Fordham Law School announcement (retrieved February 3, 2012) "The Solicitor General and Confession of Error: The Hirabayashi Case" 3/08/2012^{[permanent dead link]}
19. Neal Kumar Katyal and Laurence Tribe, Waging War, Deciding Guilt: Trying the Military Tribunals 2015-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, 111 Yale L.J. 1259 (2002).
20. Neal Katyal, The Supreme Court, 2005 Term – Comment: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The Legal Academy Goes to Practice, 120 Harv. L. Rev. 65 (2006). at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 September 2015)
21. "Neal Katyal". August 4, 2015. from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved November 9, 2016.
22. Lat, David (August 9, 2006). "Neal Katyal: The Paris Hilton of the Legal Elite?". Retrieved November 9, 2016.
23. Lat, David (March 2, 2015). "From Acting Solicitor General To Acting On 'House Of Cards'". Above the Law. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
24. "Neal Katyal Named The Litigator of the Year by American Lawyer". hoganlovells.com. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
25. Kang, Brian Fallon, Christopher (August 21, 2019). "No More Corporate Lawyers on the Federal Bench". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 11, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
26. . All in a Day's Work: The Employer's Legal Guide. May 21, 2018. Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
27. Stern, Mark Joseph (December 1, 2020). "Prominent Anti-Trump Attorney Asks the Supreme Court to Let Corporations off the Hook for Child Slavery". Slate Magazine. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
28. "Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe, 593 U.S. ___ (2021)". Justia Law. Retrieved October 24, 2022.
29. Pareene, Alex; Noah, Timothy; Noah, Timothy; Caldwell, Christopher; Caldwell, Christopher; Bahadur, Gaiutra; Bahadur, Gaiutra; Ford, Matt; Ford, Matt (December 8, 2020). "Neal Katyal and the Depravity of Big Law". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
30. "Brief for Petitioner Nestlé, USA Inc" (PDF).
31. "Citi Lawyer Cites Mystery Bank He Says Made Even Bigger Flub". Bloomberg.com. April 9, 2021. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
32. Deanna Paul, Jacob Gershman and Joe Barrett.(22 April 2021). "The Derek Chauvin Prosecutors and Their Big Gamble". Wall Street Journal website Retrieved 22 April 2021.
33. Duhigg, Charles (May 31, 2021). "The Pied Piper of SPACs". The New Yorker.
34. "Docket for 21-1271". www.supremecourt.gov. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
35. Kennerly, Max (January 31, 2023). "Johnson & Johnson's Scheme to Avoid Cancer Lawsuits Just Fell Apart in Court". Slate. Retrieved January 31, 2023.
36. Katyal, Neal K. (January 31, 2017). "Why Liberals Should Back Neil Gorsuch". The New York Times. from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
37. Spayd, Liz (February 2, 2017). "Arguing for a Judge Today, and Before Him Tomorrow". The New York Times. from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
38. Neil Gorsuch Confirmation Hearings | The New York Times, retrieved October 24, 2022
39. "On the Question of Judicial Temperament". RealClearPolitics. from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
40. "Even Liberal Legal Experts Admit Judge Kavanaugh Is 'A Superstar' | Republican Leader". www.republicanleader.senate.gov. from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
41. Katyal, Neal [@neal_katyal] (July 10, 2018). "Given J.Kavanaugh's credentials,hardworking nature&much more, it would be such a difft confirmation process if for a difft seat (like Justice Thomas') or if he were nominated by a difft President (like, any of them who weren't subjects of criminal investigations + multiple suits)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
42. Katyal, Neal [@neal_katyal] (July 13, 2018). "Regardless of where one stands on the Kavanaugh nomination, this is 100% right. I've seen it myself many times firsthand with his former clerks. His mentoring and guidance is a model for all of us in the legal profession. https://at.law.com/tL5kA3?cmp=share_twitter … via @TheNLJ" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
43. "Wednesday Q+A With Neal Katyal". National Journal. from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
44. Press release (December 18, 2006). "The Natw Journal Selects Libby Defense Lawyer Theodore Wells as 2006 Lawyer of the Year," National Law Journal 2017-02-24 at the Wayback Machine ("The (National Law Journal) also named Neal K. Katyal and Carter G. Phillips as this year's runners-up.") Retrieved February 22, 2017.
45. Barnes, Robert (May 17, 2010). "44: Politics and Policy Blog," Washington Post 2016-09-08 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
46. "The Young Litigators Fab Fifty 11-20" (January 1, 2007). American Lawyer 2017-02-24 at the Wayback Machine.
47. Staff (November 5, 2015). "Washington, DC's Best Lawyers: Supreme Court," Washingtonian 2017-02-24 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved February 22, 2017
48. Morrow, Brendan (March 8, 2017). "Neal Katyal: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. from the original on November 8, 2018. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
49. Nayar, K. P. (May 3, 2009). "Indian is Obama's tech czar". TelegraphIndia.com. from the original on April 20, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
50. "Brandeis's Seat, Kagan's Responsibility". The New York Times. July 4, 2010. from the original on May 21, 2018. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
51. "Sonia Katyal". Berkeley Law. from the original on March 17, 2017. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
52. Rahman, Khaleda (September 4, 2023). "Neal Katyal Details 'Harrowing' Burning Man Escape". Newsweek. Retrieved September 5, 2023.

Further reading

• Nina Totenberg, "Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: Path to a Landmark Ruling", NPR, September 5, 2006
• Georgetown University Law Center faculty profile February 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, containing a link to his publications, awards and cases argued
• Website maintained by Hamdan's defense team, including counsel profiles and briefs
• Profile about Katyal and Hamdan case June 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Vanity Fair, March 2007
• "Katyal's Crusade: How an Overachieving Law Professor Toppled the President's Terror Tribunals" September 12, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Legal Times July 31, 2006
• "A Patriot's Act" September 12, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, July 2006

External links

• Official website  
• Profile at Georgetown University Law Center
• Neal Katyal at IMDb  
• Appearances on C-SPAN  

Legal offices
Preceded by Daryl Joseffer	Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States 2009–2010	Succeeded by Leondra Kruger Acting
Preceded by Elena Kagan	Solicitor General of the United States Acting 2010–2011	Succeeded by Don Verrilli
Preceded by Leondra Kruger Acting	Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States 2011	Succeeded by Sri Srinivasan