Yaira Dubin leads Gibson Dunn’s New York appellate practice, after moving in April from Sullivan & Cromwell with three other litigation partners.
She previously served in the DOJ as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Biden administration and clerked for Justice Elena Kagan. Dubin, a Harvard Law grad, has argued six cases before the US Supreme Court.
She chatted about SCOTUS, Bret Easton Ellis, and Sweetgreen.
MV: What inspired your recent move?
YD: I’m excited to continue building Gibson Dunn’s appellate practice in New York. Although many of the country’s most significant business disputes originate here, the New York market has long lagged behind DC in developing concentrated Supreme Court and appellate expertise.
I find it baffling because the most complex, high-stakes commercial disputes are here. Companies are here. New York has some of the most interesting legal questions across the country. Yet the markets have grown up differently.
What makes a good Supreme Court litigator — and does it require a different skill set than appearing before other courts?
What’s unique about the Supreme Court is you’re always arguing to the same nine people.
So experienced Supreme Court advocates spend a lot of time poring over prior opinions to understand how a particular justice thinks about the issue — how do I count to five?
The thing that isn’t different is in all of these courts you’re thinking: how do I persuade someone who doesn’t already agree with me? In an easy case or an impossible case, perhaps the argument is less important. But the cases where you want to have the best advocate are the cases somewhere in the middle, where advocacy could change someone’s mind.
Is persuasion harder at the Supreme Court, where we think of the justices as being somewhat rigidly defined?
You will see, if you listen to arguments, justices asking questions that are genuine — they want to know the answers — and those answers will affect how they think about the case.
In the most complex commercial disputes a lot of votes are not settled and it’s a chance for an advocate to really make a difference. So I do not take the view that it’s all baked coming in.
What book is on your bedside table?
“The Shards” by Bret Easton Ellis. A murder-thriller with gorgeous prose. I book clubbed it with three other Supreme Court clerks.
It’s the court lunch break and you’re famished. Where are you going for food?
Sweetgreen, every time.
You’re the first person who has said that.
It’s the right answer. I actually think about Sweetgreen’s business model all the time — they’ve built this thing where you can get truly healthy food on the go that tastes really good. I’ve never met the founders of Sweetgreen, but I guess that’s a plug for them. What an amazing product.
