Biography:
Beth S. Brinkmann is Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice. She leads the appellate staff in the Civil Division. Prior to her appointment at Justice, Brinkmann chaired Appellate Practice Group at Morrison & Foerster where she was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office. She concentrated on litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States and on complex and novel legal issues arising in other federal and state courts.
Ms. Brinkmann has practiced before the Supreme Court for approximately 15 years. She has argued 24 cases before the Court. Most recently, she argued and won three significant business cases during the October 2007 Term, involving federal preemption of state regulation affecting interstate motor carriers, the Federal Arbitration Act, and the constitutionality of a state tax on gains by an interstate business. Ms. Brinkmann regularly files briefs in the Supreme Court at the certiorari stage as well, and on behalf of significant amici at the certiorari and merits stages.
Ms. Brinkmann also appears before federal courts of appeals and state appellate courts. During 2006, she argued two cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and two cases before state courts of last resort.
Ms. Brinkmann’s clients have included a wide range of businesses, organizations, industries, and individuals, including regional motor carriers associations, Mattel, Inc., MeadWestvaco Corp., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., U.S. Bank, N.A., McKesson Corp., Gen-Probe, Inc., Airports Council International-North America, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Governor of Guam, and former federal judges. She has handled cases concerning, among other issues, federal banking laws, the Patent Act, federal transportation regulation, arbitration, RICO, the Commerce Clause, administrative deference, and a wide range of federal preemption issues. She frequently consults for other attorneys on complex litigation or federal regulatory matters pending before state and federal courts and administrative agencies. A portion of her practice involves representation of clients in meetings with federal government agencies, including the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States, regarding the involvement of the United States in appellate litigation.
Ms. Brinkmann has been named a Leading Appellate Lawyer in the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Business Lawyers, listed as one of Washington’s top constitutional lawyers by the Washingtonian magazine, and identified in The Best Lawyers in America as a leader in the field of appellate law. The Legal Times named Ms. Brinkmann one of the 12 Leading Appellate Lawyers in Washington, D.C. She is also listed in Washington DC Super Lawyers as a leading appellate lawyer, and as one of the top 50 women lawyers in Washington, DC, overall. Before joining Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Brinkmann served as Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States, where she briefed and argued cases before the Supreme Court and regularly reviewed submissions from government attorneys in order to provide advice regarding appeals to the federal courts of appeals and government participation as amicus. Ms. Brinkmann also has worked as an Assistant Federal Public Defender, representing defendants at both the trial and appellate levels, and as an associate in a litigation firm, appearing in state and federal courts.
Ms. Brinkmann served as a law clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Supreme Court of the United States, and to Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Ms. Brinkmann is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she received an A.B. with great distinction and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as Note Editor on the Yale Law Journal.
Ms. Brinkmann serves on the board of directors of the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, the advisory board of the Georgetown University Law Center Supreme Court Institute, and the board of trustees of the Supreme Court Historical Society. She is a member of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court. She makes frequent presentations on the Supreme Court and its docket and appellate advocacy.
Ms. Brinkmann is admitted to practice law in California and the District of Columbia.
