Press Release

Assistant Attorney General Selected as a Supreme Court Fellow by the National Association of Attorneys General

April 25, 2008

Assistant Attorney General Margaret Paton-Walsh has been selected as a Supreme Court Fellow by the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). She will spend her three-month fellowship in Washington, D.C. in 2009.

The Supreme Court Fellows Program is designed to give state lawyers an opportunity to obtain direct and intensive hands-on exposure to Supreme Court practice, to assist the attorney's state in its future Supreme Court work. The Fellows work with NAAG's Supreme Court Project, which provides oral advocacy assistance to states by organizing moot courts for all state attorneys who are arguing before the Court. While Supreme Court practitioners in the Washington D.C. area compose the panels, the Fellows attend all the moot courts, and participate as judges in some that are of particular interest to them. The Fellows also attend all Supreme Court oral arguments conducted during their fellowship. Each Fellow writes an amicus brief in a Supreme Court case, to be filed on behalf of states, and writes weekly reports for states about the Supreme Court opinions issued, cases granted review, and other developments of interest in the Court.

Ms. Paton-Walsh has been with the Department of Law for three years. She was born and raised in England, emigrated to the U.S. in 1991, and was naturalized as a US citizen in 2004. She studied U.S. history at the Ohio State University and the University of Washington and taught history at the college level for five years before deciding to attend law school. Ms. Paton-Walsh graduated from Harvard Law School in 2004 and came to Alaska to clerk for former Chief Justice Alex Bryner of the Alaska Supreme Court. She worked briefly in private practice before joining the Department of Law, where she practices in the Labor and State Affairs Section in Anchorage.

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Department Media Contacts: Communications Director Patty Sullivan at patty.sullivan@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6368. Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.