Nicole A. Saharsky

Nicole A. Saharsky is co-head of Mayer Brown's Supreme Court & Appellate Practice. She focuses her practice on briefing and arguing cases in the US Supreme Court and in the federal and state appellate courts and on developing legal strategy for the trial courts and agency proceedings. She has been identified by the Legal 500 as a “Leading Lawyer” in the Dispute Resolution (Appellate) practice area and ranked in Chambers USA for Appellate Law. She also has been recognized by Washingtonian as one of Washington DC’s best lawyers for Supreme Court practice and as one of Washington DC’s “most powerful women.”

In the US Supreme Court, Nicole has argued 30 cases, briefed 46 cases on the merits, and filed hundreds of certiorari-stage briefs and motions. Her cases involved a broad range of business issues, including securities fraud, intellectual property, labor and employment, bankruptcy, personal jurisdiction, and corporate criminal liability. Most recently, she argued Taggart v. Lorenzen, a bankruptcy case about contempt of court. Nicole frequently provides commentary on the Supreme Court for C-SPAN, Law360, Reuters, and other national media outlets. She recently was featured in a Law360 article and video series on the topic, “Will the Future of the Supreme Court Bar Be Female?”

Nicole also has briefed and argued federal and state appeals and trial-level motions for clients across a wide variety of industries. Her cases have involved administrative law, antitrust, banking, bankruptcy, constitutional law, environmental law, ERISA, intellectual property, labor and employment law, personal jurisdiction, and tax issues. She has an active pro bono practice and currently is serving as lead appellate counsel for the US Women’s National Soccer Team in their equal-pay lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation.

Nicole previously served for ten years as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the United States Department of Justice, where she was responsible for briefing and arguing cases in the US Supreme Court. She also was responsible for advising government agencies about whether to appeal, seek rehearing, participate as amicus curiae or seek certiorari in various cases. In that role, she routinely provided strategic advice to attorneys in other parts of the federal government.

Nicole received her law degree summa cum laude from University of Minnesota Law School and clerked for Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the Fifth Circuit. Before law school, she worked at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). She earned her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University.