Donald B. Ayer (Don)

Partner

Don Ayer is the Firm's most experienced Supreme Court lawyer, with 18 arguments before the Court in cases involving constitutional, statutory, regulatory, and criminal matters. He also has argued more than 60 other appeals on a broad range of topics, including securing reversal of several multimillion dollar trial judgments in business dispute cases. In addition, Don has acted as lead counsel in 20 federal court jury trials.

Don previously served as the deputy attorney general and principal deputy solicitor general of the United States and as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California.

Don is now president-elect of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and has served as president of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court in Washington, D.C. He currently teaches a course in Supreme Court advocacy at Georgetown University Law Center and Duke Law School.

He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (appellate practice), Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Chambers USA (national appellate), and Washingtonian magazine's "Best Lawyers in Washington" (Supreme Court). Don is a member of the ALI, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and serves on the advisory boards of the NYU Institute of Judicial Administration, the Georgetown Law School Supreme Court Institute, the State and Local Legal Center, and the Publications Committee of the Supreme Court Historical Society.