As the end of the year draws near, all eyes are turning to the U.S. Supreme Court and the decisions it will issue during its October 2017 term. In this Expert Analysis, Catherine Carroll reflects on her very first time standing before the justices.
I argued my first case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. It was my birthday. And I must say, the experience set the bar pretty high for future birthdays.
I had the privilege of representing The Hartford in Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance Co., which presented the question whether a contractual limitations provision in a group disability insurance policy is enforceable in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act denial-of-benefits suit.
One of my first assignments when I joined WilmerHale as an associate in 2005 was a complicated reinsurance matter for The Hartford, and I'd worked with them on several other matters since. So when they called my partner and mentor Seth Waxman in early 2013 to ask us to handle the brief in opposition to the petition for certiorari in the Heimeshoff case, Seth brought me in to work on the briefing, along with one of our ace associates, Daniel Winik. While we didn't like to admit it, the main ERISA question in the petition was the subject of a split in the circuit courts. And circuit splits in ERISA cases are a regular feature of the Supreme Court's merits docket.
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Originally published by Law360
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