Lawyer Makes an Appearance Before Chief Justice—In Singing Mode
A Washington, D.C.-area lawyer made his first appearance before Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Friday, but it wasn’t in a U.S. Supreme Court case.
Matthew Schwartz met Roberts on Friday evening after singing the National Anthem for the John Carroll Society, a group of Catholic professionals. Roberts is a member. The 2007 Georgetown University Law Center law grad posted updates on Twitter about his experience.
“Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, while shaking Matt’s hand after the banquet: ‘You have a great voice!’ MISSION ACCOMPLISHED,” Schwartz wrote.
Schwartz says he hasn’t been practicing law on a full-time basis since the economic downturn, but he’s still keeping busy. He does “random legal jobs” and independent contractor work writing practice exam questions for Kaplan’s bar review courses. He also co-hosts a new podcast called Lex Appeal for the Talk Radio News Service run by another Georgetown law grad and is a tenor in the professional choir at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
“A large part of my income over the past couple of years has come from singing,” Schwartz confesses.
Schwartz tells the ABA Journal he had been nervous about his John Carroll Society appearance ever since he was invited to sing at the national banquet and told the chief justice would be there. “My heart immediately started pounding, that was about a month ago, and it didn’t stop pounding” until shortly before his appearance.
“In many ways it’s kind of like arguing before a court,” he says. “You can be really, really nervous beforehand, but if you are good at it, once you get up there and you are facing the judges and the courtroom, you put the nerves aside.”
Schwartz reports that the singing went well, but it didn’t turn out to be a solo gig. Everyone joined in, which meant Schwartz had to abandon his plans to hold some notes a little longer and add some pauses for a dramatic flourish.
Afterward, he approached Roberts to introduce himself. He had met the chief justice once before when he gave an hour lecture to a Georgetown law class on Supreme Court advocacy.
The chief justice shook his hand and told Schwartz he has a great voice. “That was just wonderful,” Schwartz says. “I never before imagined that the chief justice of the United States would compliment me on anything, let alone my singing voice.”
“I kind of wanted to ask for a picture, but no one was taking pictures, and it felt a little presumptuous asking, and his big giant secret service guy was kind of pushing him out,” Schwartz recalled. “But it was a wonderful evening. And I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.”
