On June 18, 2026, Assistant Dean of Trial Advocacy and Litigations Training and Clinical Professor of Law Phyllis Williams Kotey was sworn by Chief Justice John Roberts into the United States Supreme Court Bar by movant Judge Tiffany Williams Brewer, chair of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association (ABA). Assistant Dean Kotey was individually acknowledged as a member of the bench as a senior judge.
Lawyers must be members of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar to argue before the Supreme Court of the United States. To qualify for admission to the Bar, candidates must have been admitted to practice in the highest court of a U.S. state, commonwealth, territory, or possession, or the District of Columbia, for at least three years; must not have been the subject of any adverse disciplinary action during that three-year period; and must be of good moral and professional character.
"To appear before a United States Supreme Court that included Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was a dream realized for a little black girl from the projects," said Kotey. "Judges and lawyers play a critical role in creating and maintaining opportunities to demonstrate the importance of our legal institutions."
Assistant Dean Kotey also heard opinions delivered by Justices Gorsuch, Kagan and Sotomayor in United States v. Hemani, Hunter v. United States, and T.M. v. University of Maryland Medical System Corp. respectively. She looks forward to an opportunity to take a group of FIU Law alumni to Washington, D.C. to be sworn in the next year.