Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Poor Thomas Warren

At first glance Tom Warren might not be an obvious candidate for your sympathy. He's a partner at Baker Hostetler, where he's the leader of its appellate defense group. Graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law, former federal prosecutor, adjunct professor at three law schools...

But Tom Warren does deserve your sympathy, because on April 5, he's scheduled to present oral argument in the Ohio Supreme Court in Columbus at 9 a.m., and in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago an hour and a half after that.

Now, again, one might think that that's a good problem to have, in a sense. Just ask one court or the other to reschedule the argument, right?

Nope. Poor Tom Warren tried that. He asked the Seventh Circuit first, presumably because it was the later-scheduled argument. No dice--that court wrote that while it normally grants requests to avoid a particular day or week when the request is made prior to argument being scheduled, rescheduling requests made after an argument date is set are only granted in "extraordinary circumstances," and having a previously scheduled argument at the same time in a state supreme court 360 miles away apparently does not qualify.

After being turned down by the Seventh Circuit, he then asked the Ohio Supreme Court to reschedule its argument, noting that he tried to get the Seventh Circuit to reschedule first and had been turned down. Today that Court also said no, denying the request without explanation.

I don't know where he'll go from here--maybe back to the Seventh Circuit with another effort to establish "extraordinary circumstances"? Or, a better idea still: kick one of the arguments to one of what I'm sure is a large stable of young, hungry, and talented associates. Baker Hostetler must have dozens or hundreds of them who would, I'm sure, do a bang-up job.

Of course, if all else fails, he could turn the Ohio Supreme Court argument over to his co-counsel: former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Yvette McGee Brown.

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