Human Capital in Court: The Role of Attorney Experience in U.S. Supreme Court Litigation

Published in the Journal of Law and Courts, 10 (1): 61-85 (2022)

Michael Nelson
Lee Epstein

Human capital theory suggests that work experience acquired through on-the-job-training primes people to be more successful. Empirical validations of this hypothesis are numerous, but limited evidence of the relevance of human capital for courtroom advocacy exists. We examine whether the outcomes obtained by experienced attorneys are significantly better than the outcomes they would have obtained as novices. Adopting a strategy for credible causal inference that could be applied to almost any peak court, the analysis shows that attorneys with experience, relative to first-timers, are significantly and consistently more likely to win their cases and capture the votes of judges.

Click here for the article (.pdf)
Click here for the data (JCL Dataverse)

The New York Times reported the results of an earlier version of this study.