News
Events
Articles
Press Releases
Success Stories

Click here for printable
PDF of article as appeared in the
December/January 2011 issue of
Evansville Business

A Supreme Trip

Local attorneys traveled to the nation's capital to reach a new level in their profession

By Krista B. Lockyear

KRISTA B. LOCKYEAR — a partner in the corporate department of Rudolph, Fine, Porter & Johnson (RFPJ)— was one of 12 attorneys from the Evansville Bar Association who

applied for admission to the bar of the United States

Krista B. Lockyear        812-422-9444       kbl@rfpj.com

Supreme Court, the nation's top judicial body. Any attorney needing to appear in front the Supreme Court for a case must be admitted. "Plus, it is an honor and an amazing experience for an attorney." says Lockyear, and for RFPJ, "it gives us an attorney admitted to practice at the highest court in our country." Each attorney traveled to Washington in October to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court. Lockyear shares her experience.

EVEN WITHOUT THE PRESSURE of preparing to argue a case, the thought of standing before the Supreme Court justices gave me butterflies. We arrived at the courthouse at 8 a.m., and security escorted us to a beautiful ballroom for breakfast. Most of the applicants had numerous family members with them, including children. My 10-year-old son, Kristian, wore his finest suit and looked like a lawyer. Everyone down to the youngest was well-behaved — the solemnity of the place seemed to seep into everyone's understanding.

The admissions of attorneys are the first matter of business for the court. Forty-five minutes before the nine justices entered the courtroom at 10 a.m., we were escorted into the courtroom and seated at the front of the room to the left side of the bench. To our immediate left were members of the press including Nina Totenberg, NPR's longtime legal affairs correspondent. With so much time to spare, we began talking among ourselves, with the press correspondents, and even briefly with the attorneys preparing for the morning's first case.

As the justices entered the courtroom to the familiar

"Oyez. Oyez. Oyez..." we all rose. Vanderburgh County Circuit Court Judge Carl Heldt, who had petitioned for the admittance of our attorneys, approached the podium and made his motion to the justices to allow our admission to the court with each of us standing in turn as our name was read. The justices smiled and welcomed us to their courtroom. We sat, and the first argument of the day commenced.

For the next two hours, you could hear a pin drop, despite roughly 200 people in the audience. The only exception was the quick roar of laughter in response to various quips from the justices. The personalities, the intellect, and the humor contrasted with the serious concern for the issues displayed by the justices of our Supreme Court.

As attorneys, we spend every day reading the opinions of judges—from the lowest to the highest courts. The honor of being welcomed into the Supreme Court of the United States, the experience, is one of the highlights of a career.