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Paul Weiss Breaks Into Supreme Court Work With a New Partner
Kannon Shanmugam will help build an appeals practice at the New York-based firm known for its litigation and mergers and acquisitions work

By Sara Randazzo
Updated Jan. 27, 2019 9:28 p.m. ET

An elite New York law firm is poised to break into the rarified world of U.S. Supreme Court work with the hire of a lawyer with exceptional experience in that area.

Kannon Shanmugam, 46, is leaving Williams & Connolly LLP to build an appeals practice at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, a New York-based firm known for its litigation and mergers and acquisitions work.

Mr....

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Paul Weiss Launches Supreme Court Practice As Press Spotlight Returns To Partnership Diversity
The arrival of a partner of color refocuses the discussion on what firms need to do to address diversity.

By JOE PATRICE
Jan 28, 2019 at 12:05 PM

Paul Weiss has long considered a focused appellate and Supreme Court practice, but never felt ready to pull the trigger until it could land a “superstar” to lead the practice. That all changed over the weekend when the firm announced it would be bringing in Kannon Shanmugam from Williams & Connolly to launch the dedicated practice group and help lead the firm’s D.C. office.
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And with the arrival of Shanmugam, an established Supreme Court advocate from one of Washington’s top shops, the firm begins to make good on this specific pledge, bolstering the firm’s practice while simultaneously adding a person of color to a high-profile position within the firm.

Now, Shanmugam, a FedSoc lifer who clerked for former Fourth Circuit judge Michael Luttig and Justice Antonin Scalia, finds himself an avatar of Paul Weiss’s efforts to improve the diversity that his mentors long railed against as unimportant.
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