Oklahoma hires Latham team for US Supreme Court religious rights case

Reuters

03-04-2025

April 3 (Reuters) - (Billable Hours is Reuters' weekly report on lawyers and money. Please send tips or suggestions to [e-mail], opens new tab)
Oklahoma has hired one of Washington's top appellate lawyers for a coming clash over First Amendment religious rights and charter schools at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state turned to Latham's Gregory Garre, a former Republican-appointed U.S. solicitor general, to lead the team for Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
Latham will bill up to $250,000 for the work at the high court, according to a contract obtained by Reuters through a public records request.
Drummond in 2023 sued to block St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School from becoming the first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in the country. Drummond argued his office was bound to "prevent the type of state-funded religion that Oklahoma's constitutional framers and the founders of our country sought to prevent."
Garre is facing off against conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, representing Oklahoma's Statewide Charter School Board. Dechert represents St. Isidore. The state's high court in June ruled against the board and organizers of the proposed school.
Garre, who is asking the justices to uphold restrictions on funding for religious education, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, the Oklahoma attorney general's office called Garre a "brilliant legal mind."
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on April 30.
In 2008, Garre served as the Senate-confirmed U.S. solicitor general, the nation's highest government appellate lawyer. He has argued 49 cases at the Supreme Court.
Five Latham associates appeared with Garre on the Supreme Court brief he filed, opens new tab on Monday for Drummond. They said a ruling for the board would cause "chaos and confusion for thousands of charter schools and millions of schoolchildren nationwide."
Latham's flat fee includes $100,000 for consulting with the U.S. Justice Department to encourage it to file an amicus brief, and another $100,000 for filing the state's brief. The firm will be paid $50,000 after oral arguments.
Garre has billed corporate clients at least $2,035 an hour, according to a Reuters review of U.S. bankruptcy records, but he is likely not charging that amount to Oklahoma, which said the firm had provided a discount.
Oklahoma in other cases has brought on U.S. Supreme Court veterans, including Paul Clement, who also was a U.S. solicitor general during the George W. Bush administration, and Kannon Shanmugam, who leads the Washington, D.C. office of law firm Paul Weiss.
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"It is neither 'bad faith' nor 'vexatious' for a lawyer to dismiss and refile if he sincerely believes that this is the least expensive and least burdensome way of effectuating an amendment to his pleading — even if that belief turns out to be mistaken," Mitchell wrote.
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A spokesperson for Northwestern declined to comment. Mitchell and FASORP's other attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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