Most lawyers never argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Some attorneys practice regularly before the U.S. Supreme Court as members of the Supreme Court Bar. Other attorneys have argued an almost unbelievable number of cases. Walter Jones argued a record 317 cases before the high court from 1801 to 1850. The great Daniel Webster, a U.S. congressman and attorney from Massachusetts who lived from 1782 to 1852, argued nearly 250 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was involved in many landmark decisions, such as Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), and Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837).

William Wirt, who served as the country’s U.S. attorney general from 1817 to 1829, argued more than 170 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including McCullough v. Maryland (1819), Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1832).

Another U.S. attorney general, William Pinckney, argued numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Current Supreme Court litigator Steven M. Shapiro called Pinckney the “Supreme Court’s greatest advocate.”

In the twentieth century, Hayden Covington—longtime counsel to the Jehovah Witnesses, won 37 of the 44 cases he argued before the high court in the U.S. Supreme Court, including a victory for boxer Cassius Clay (better known as Muhammad Ali).

John William Davis, who lived from 1873 to 1955, argued 140 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including Young-town Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), and Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

In the present day, Tom Goldstein of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld has argued 21 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and he is only 40 years old. His practice consists nearly entirely of U.S. Supreme Court cases. Other lawyers may argue one case before the U.S. Supreme Court, while representing a the litigant from the beginning of a case.

Those who serve as solicitor general, a position appointed by the president to argue for the United States, naturally argue many more cases than even those members of the Supreme Court Bar who regular argue cases. Seth Waxman, now a law professor, previously served as solicitor general and argued 31 cases before the high court.