Attorney Deepak Gupta Civics 101: Reminding Us of the Role, Purpose & Inner Workings of the United States Supreme Court
Wed Feb 04 2026
In this episode of The Legal Lens Show, host Angela Reddock-Wright sits down with Deepak Gupta, one of the nation’s leading Supreme Court and appellate lawyers and founding principal of the Washington D.C. based public-interest firm Gupta Wessler LLP, to discuss how civil rights, civil liberties, and consumer protection are shaped at the highest court levels. Gupta shares how inspiration from Thurgood Marshall, the Civil Rights Movement, and his early work as a college debater and ACLU law student intern led him to a career focused on helping people access justice through the courts, even before a consistently conservative Supreme Court. He explains his firm’s focus on what they call the “law docket”—cases about jurisdiction, class actions, forced arbitration, securities fraud, and other technical issues that quietly govern whether consumers and workers can sue corporations where they live and were harmed, highlighting a unanimous Ford personal-jurisdiction decision and Monsanto PCB litigation in Washington State as examples of wins with broad community impact. Throughout the conversation, he underscores that fair access to lawyers, courts, and legal rules is “half the battle,” and shows how dedicated appellate advocacy can still produce meaningful victories that improve everyday people’s lives.
Key Topics Covered:
Deepak Gupta’s path from college debater and ACLU intern to Supreme Court and appellate specialistPracticing before a conservative Supreme Court: why he believes you still don’t “give up,” and how careful legal arguments can sometimes prevail.The firm’s focus on the “law docket”—cases involving class actions, forced arbitration, securities fraud, and other issues that structure everyday economic life for consumers and workers.How cases like the Monsanto PCB litigation in Washington State show appellate work’s broader community impact.Why access to courts and attorneys is central to justice and how appellate strategy can chip away at rules that keep people from being heard.
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In this episode of The Legal Lens Show, host Angela Reddock-Wright sits down with Deepak Gupta, one of the nation’s leading Supreme Court and appellate lawyers and founding principal of the Washington D.C. based public-interest firm Gupta Wessler LLP, to discuss how civil rights, civil liberties, and consumer protection are shaped at the highest court levels. Gupta shares how inspiration from Thurgood Marshall, the Civil Rights Movement, and his early work as a college debater and ACLU law student intern led him to a career focused on helping people access justice through the courts, even before a consistently conservative Supreme Court. He explains his firm’s focus on what they call the “law docket”—cases about jurisdiction, class actions, forced arbitration, securities fraud, and other technical issues that quietly govern whether consumers and workers can sue corporations where they live and were harmed, highlighting a unanimous Ford personal-jurisdiction decision and Monsanto PCB litigation in Washington State as examples of wins with broad community impact. Throughout the conversation, he underscores that fair access to lawyers, courts, and legal rules is “half the battle,” and shows how dedicated appellate advocacy can still produce meaningful victories that improve everyday people’s lives. Key Topics Covered: Deepak Gupta’s path from college debater and ACLU intern to Supreme Court and appellate specialistPracticing before a conservative Supreme Court: why he believes you still don’t “give up,” and how careful legal arguments can sometimes prevail.The firm’s focus on the “law docket”—cases involving class actions, forced arbitration, securities fraud, and other issues that structure everyday economic life for consumers and workers.How cases like the Monsanto PCB litigation in Washington State show appellate work’s broader community impact.Why access to courts and attorneys is central to justice and how appellate strategy can chip away at rules that keep people from being heard. 🔗 Connect with Angela: InstagramFacebookLinkedInVisit Angela's Website