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| Credit: JonesDay.com |
Beth Heifetz is the new chair of the Supreme Court and appellate
group at Jones Day, known formally as “Issues & Appeals.” She succeeded Glen
Nager as of 2014.
Heifetz is the first woman
to lead Issues & Appeals, a group of more than seventy-five attorneys in twelve
offices throughout the country.
Her career path to chairing a flagship group at a major law firm has been both traditional and non-traditional.
Her career path to chairing a flagship group at a major law firm has been both traditional and non-traditional.
Heifetz is a longtime
member of the Issues & Appeals group and a former Supreme Court clerk,
working for Justice Harry Blackmun during the 1985 term.
“I learned law, and I
learned baseball,” Heifetz said, in an interview Monday.
She and her co-clerks had
breakfast with the justice every day during the week, and he would share
details about players and statistics.
Blackmun and Judge Abner
Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, for whom she also
clerked, served as mentors and role models as her career progressed.
The part that is unexpected
(and encouraging) in Heifetz’s career trajectory is that she stepped away from
practice for five years, while raising young children. She also later worked
part-time.
Heifetz attributes her
success in returning to practice and now leading a nationwide appellate group
to support from both her family and Jones Day. “Everyone was committed to making it
work,” she observed.
Recently, Heifetz made
news as the partner in charge
of judicial clerk recruiting. In the last two hiring cycles, under her
leadership, twelve Supreme Court clerks joined the firm, a jaw-dropping total.
Heifetz is excited about
the new hires, “great young
attorneys,” as she put it, and the future of the Issues & Appeals
group.
“We’ve got a good
formula,” Heifetz explained.
Jones Day is always a
presence at the Supreme Court. This term alone, the firm has four arguments by
four different attorneys. The variety of advocates is a Jones Day trademark, term
after term.
Heifetz is currently
working on the high-profile Detroit bankruptcy at the Sixth Circuit and in
related proceedings, with other Issues & Appeals attorneys. She and Detroit’s
Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, formerly of Jones Day, worked together at the firm
on bankruptcy matters. Now, both find themselves with roles in the supersized
Detroit bankruptcy.
Heifetz also intends to
continue her community involvement. In 2013, President Obama appointed
her to the governing body of
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She works with the museum on its
collections: obtaining and preserving evidence of the Holocaust and ensuring
that it is accessible to researchers.
Nager, who led Issues
& Appeals for fifteen years, maintains an active appellate practice at
Jones Day. Just last week, the Supreme Court granted a petition for certiorari
that Nager filed in North
Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC. He also recently completed
two years as president of the U.S. Golf Association.
