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On Tuesday evening, October 19, 2021 at 5:00 pm sharp, Neal Katyal will brief us via Zoom on his experiences litigating national security cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Katyal is kindly taking time off from preparing oral arguments for the Court’s new term in order to deliver our 4th Annual Richard S. Milstein Lecture.

In the constellation of a lawyer’s ethical obligations, the duty to advocate zealously shines bright. Arguably, it is one of the most important obligations an attorney has. But advocacy on a client’s behalf is not without bounds; it is both tempered and confined by an equally important duty—the one outlined in Rule 3.3 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct—that of candor toward the tribunal.

Attorney Katyal is interested in the areas where zealous advocacy meets, collides with, and is tempered by the duty of truthfulness to the court, especially in the context of litigating liberty. A legal scholar and a practitioner whose stellar career includes a track record of orally advocating 44 times before the U.S. Supreme Court, his victories have been fought and won in some hard cases—including those addressing the constitutionality of voting legislation, alleged wartime abuses during U.S. counterterrorism operations, the energy industry’s response to global warming, and the patentability of certain aspects of the human genome—to name just a few. His keynote address at MCLE’s 2021 Richard S. Milstein Lecture promises to offer unique and informed perspectives on how candor to our nation’s highest court has manifested and played out in decades of decisions where national security has been at stake.

Mr. Katyal will explore how the duty of truthfulness to the court is a non-negotiable principle of our legal system. He will lead us directly into the tribunal with a compelling narrative, one that brings the duty of candor into sharp focus. He will tell us what it means for ethical lawyering—not only in the United States Supreme Court, but in every courtroom, every day.

Neal Katyal is the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of Law at Georgetown University and a Partner at Hogan Lovells. He previously served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States. He has argued 44 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, with 41 of them in the last decade. His cases include successfully striking down the Guantanamo military tribunals, successfully defending the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act, successfully defending the Peace Cross in Maryland, and a landmark personal jurisdiction win for Bristol Meyers Squibb. At the age of 51, he has already argued more Supreme Court cases in U.S. history than has any minority attorney, recently breaking the record held by Thurgood Marshall. His numerous distinctions include: the Edmund Randolph Award (the highest civilian award given by U.S. Department of Justice), The Litigator of the Year by American Lawyer (2017 and 2018, chosen as the sole Grand Prize Winner of all the lawyers in the United States), Appellate MVP by Law360 numerous times (most recently in 2017), 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). He has appeared on virtually every major American news program, as well as on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS and House of Cards on Netflix (where he played himself).