B&I Partner Recalls His Day In The Supreme Court For Super Lawyers

An article in the November 2018 issue of New England Super Lawyers, “The Whole Show: How Peter Brann Won by Throwing Away Everything and Starting Over,” Brann & Isaacson partner Peter Brann recalls his experience representing the State of Maine in the United States Supreme Court in 1999. Honored by Super Lawyers again in 2018 in the fields of Business Litigation and Intellectual Property Litigation, Brann was then Solicitor General for the State of Maine. In that role, he appeared for the State to argue Alden v. Maine on the question whether Congress could pass a law permitting individuals to sue a state government for damages in state court. Brann recalls the best advice he received was from Jeff Sutton, now a federal appellate judge, who told him, “‘Take everything you’ve done before, throw it away, and start over.’” He did so, and succeeded in convincing the Supreme Court to rule for the State in a 5–4 decision in which Justice Kennedy provided the swing vote.

Brann is one of two B&I attorneys, along with senior partner George Isaacson, to have argued cases in the Supreme Court, a rare distinction for a Maine–based, twenty-person law firm.