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Obama's pick for Solicitor General -- Elena Kagan -- has never argued a case before the Supreme Court.

In fact, it appears that she has no appellate experience at all.

[F]ormer Solicitor General Charles Fried, now a Harvard colleague of Kagan's, exclaims "Nonsense!" when asked if Kagan's lack of appellate experience is a deficit. "Anyone who tells you it's a problem is trying to maintain a guild lock on Supreme Court arguments."...

Fried himself had not argued before becoming deputy solicitor general in February 1985 -- a few months before he was elevated and confirmed as solicitor general....

... Georgetown University law professor Richard Lazarus -- currently visiting at Harvard -- the appointment of Kagan represents a "return to the mold" of earlier solicitors general, most of whom arrived from academia or the bench with little or no appellate experience.

It was not until Seth Waxman's appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1997, Lazarus says, that a new trend began of drawing SGs from the ranks of private firms, where they had honed litigating or appellate skills....

But the Waxman trend also tracks -- and perhaps responds to -- a new era on the Supreme Court itself, of a searingly "hot bench" with eight very active, combative questioners, as opposed to past courts where as many as three or four justices were almost as silent as Justice Clarence Thomas is now. That intensity has helped promote the notion that a new level of skill and specialization is needed to conquer the modern-day Court....

Well, it will be interesting to see how this works out.

Full post as published by Althouse on January 13, 2009 (boomark / email).