The IADC Amicus Brief Program: Its Increasing
Success and Influence
By Mary-Christine Sungaila
An appellate partner at Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. in California,
Mary-Christine Sungaila has chaired the IADC Amicus Curiae
Committee since 2010. Under her leadership, the committee
has prevailed in every merits case in which it has participated.
Ms. Sungaila also chairs the Appellate Practice Committee of
the IADC, is a member of the Board of the Foundation of the IADC, has served on
Annual CLE committees and the IADC Nominating Committee, and lectured on
appellate record preservation at the IADC Trial Academy on multiple occasions. She
also co-chairs the ABA’s LitigationSection Committee on Amicus Curiae Briefs and was
appointed by the ABA President to the seven-member Standing Committee on Amicus
Curiae Briefs, which reviews and approves all amicus briefs filed in the name of the
ABA.
ONCE rare, amicus curiae or
‘‘friend of the court’’ briefs are
now filed in the majority of appel-
late cases heard by the United States Supre-
me Court and various state supreme courts.
In the United States Supreme Court,
amicus briefs were filed in thirty-five
percent of the Court’s cases in the 1965–
66 term; by 1995, one or more amicus
briefs were filed in nearly ninety percent of
the Court’s cases.
1
An analysis of the 1999
to 2008 terms showed that in civil cases
the average filing rate for amicus briefs
was 92.4% (with a high of 100% amicus
participation in all civil cases in the 2007
term).
2
The number of civil cases before
the Court each term ranged from thirty-
nine to sixty-one; the total number of
amicus briefs filed each term in those cases
ranged from 344 to 627.
3
‘‘Historically, state courts were more
likely than the U.S[.] Supreme Court to
limit the role of amicus participation in
appeals.’’
4
Nonetheless, the number of
amicus briefs filed in state high courts
1
See Mary-Christine Sungaila, Effective Amicus
Practice Before the United States Supreme Court: A
Case Study, 8 S. CAL.REV.L.&WOMEN’SSTUD.
187, 188, nn. 4–6 (1999) (citing data from
Supreme Court advocate Bruce Ennis, a respected
Supreme Court treatise, and a news report in the
ABA Litigation News).
2
See Mary-Christine Sungaila, A Friend in Need is
a Friend Indeed: The Increased Prevalence and
Influence of Amicus Briefs, IADC Appellate
Practice Committee Newsletter (March 2010).
3
Id.
4
Sarah F. Corbally, Donald C. Bross, and Victor
E. Flango, Filing of Amicus Curiae Briefs in State
Courts of Last Resort: 1960–2000,25J
UST.SYS.J.
39, 43 (2004).
