Paul Hughes is co-chair of the Firm’s Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Group. He briefs and argues complex appeals, and he develops legal strategy for trial litigation. An experienced appellate lawyer, Paul has argued more than 30 cases in courts throughout the country, including five times in the US Supreme Court, before en bancsittings of the Fifth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits, and several arguments before panels of the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, DC and Federal Circuits. He has handled more than 250 appellate matters, including 21 merits cases at the US Supreme Court. Paul litigates in a wide variety of substantive areas, including administrative law, intellectual property, False Claims Act, bankruptcy, securities and high-skilled immigration.
Paul is also a visiting clinical lecturer in law at the Yale Law School, where he co-directs Yale’s Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic.
Paul’s notable US Supreme Court experience includes a 9-0 victory in Lamar, Archer & Confrin, LLP v. Appling (2018), a bankruptcy matter involving debts obtained by fraud. In Ross v. Blake (2016), Paul secured unanimous victory for the respondent by fundamentally reframing the issues presented for decision. In 2019, Paul argued Kisor v. Wilkie (an administrative law case regarding Auer deference) and Manhattan Community Access Corporation v. Halleck (a case considering the reach of the First Amendment to public access television).
Paul served as a law clerk to the Honorable Diana Gribbon Motz of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was also a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal.
