The Fascinating Life of a Blawger

While every blawger I know is, of course, incredibly interesting, it appears that there is none as fascinating as Tom Goldstein, honcho at SCOTUSBlog.  He’s so fascinating that the one-time shoeless SCOTUS chaser, now fully dressed Akin Gump partner, has sold his life rights to NBC in anticipation of a television show about his life.


For those who haven’t heard of Goldstein, his story goes like this: He was a fourth-year lawyer at Boies, Schiller when he decided he wanted to pursue a Supreme Court practice. He quit the law firm and worked at home as he looked for cases likely to make it to the high court, volunteering to represent litigants for free. He made it work. Now Goldstein is an appellate litigator with Akin Gump who has argued 21 Supreme Court cases.

While it’s not entirely clear how one distinguishes solicitation when it applies to Supreme Court cases as opposed to, oh, chasing ambulances for a decent PI case, you can’t fault Goldstein for taking a chance and making good on it.



Variety has reported that NBC is developing a show based on Goldstein’s early career, when he sat shoeless in his house pounding away on the Web, pitching his wares to parties involved in potential Supreme Court cases, and making a name for himself.

According to the article, the show’s working title is “Tommy Supreme.” Supposedly the show will be an “inverse House,” depicting a likable guy in an unlikable profession.
Of course, Dr. House is also brilliant, but I don’t think they mean that Goldstein is an idiot.  In fact, he’s done quite an extraordinary job, both with this blog and his career.  Plus, he’s a very funny guy, despite his having settled in with a firm like Akin Gump.




So what does Tommy Supreme think about his sudden climb to fame?


“It’s really weird,” Goldstein told us Friday afternoon. “But it is what it is. They’ve put an awfully lot of thought into this.” Goldstein says that in order to get the show off the ground, he had to sell his “life rights” to Sony Pictures Television. “I can’t go out and sell ‘Tom Goldstein’ action figures now,” he jokes.
Joke though it may be, it’s an important lesson for the rest of us in the blawgosphere.  Make your deal for action figures now, before Sony buys your life rights.  Don’t let what happened to Tom Goldstein happen to you.

I think it’s terrific that television has taken an interest in Goldstein and I hope that this show makes it on air.  His story really is quite fascinating, and he’s done a terrific job at SCOTUSBlog.  And when Tom Goldstein action figures make it the shelves of my local Lawyer-R-Us, I plan to buy them in every color suit available.  Congratulations, Tom. 

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