Dirk Phillips represents clients in matters pending before appellate courts across the country, including the US Supreme Court. Over the course of his career, Mr. Phillips has litigated numerous appeals cutting across a wide variety of substantive areas, including financial regulation, arbitration, class action, tax, employment, voting, and criminal matters, as well as cases presenting important questions of constitutional and administrative law and civil procedure. Legal 500, in highlighting Arnold & Porter's appellate practice, has noted Mr. Phillips' "excellent reputation," and he has been described in the National Law Journal as a member of the firm's appellate "dream team."
Mr. Phillips has worked on matters pending in all thirteen federal circuit courts and has argued appeals before the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits. He is a Master in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court and also assists with the Moot Court Program at Georgetown Law’s Supreme Court Institute, which helps prepare advocates for oral argument before the US Supreme Court.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Phillips served in the Appellate Section of the Civil Rights Division at the US Department of Justice (DOJ), where he briefed and argued both civil and criminal matters in federal appellate courts. He also provided legal counsel to other components within the Division and worked with attorneys from the Office of the Solicitor General on cases pending before the Supreme Court. During his tenure at the DOJ, Mr. Phillips received four awards for superior performance.
Before joining the DOJ, Mr. Phillips was a member of the Supreme Court and Appellate practice at another international law firm. Earlier in his career, Mr. Phillips served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jane R. Roth of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and to the Honorable James C. Cacheris of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Credentials
Education
- J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 2000
- M.A., University of Virginia, 2000
- B.S., James Madison University, 1997, summa cum laude
Admissions
- District of Columbia
- Supreme Court of the United States
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
Government & Military Service
- Appellate Attorney, Civil Rights Division, Appellate Section, US Department of Justice
Clerkships
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, The Honorable Jane R. Roth
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, The Honorable James C. Cacheris
Activities
- Master, Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court