INDIANA – Attorney General Todd Rokita announced this week that Solicitor General Thomas M. Fisher will depart next month to take a leadership role with a nonprofit advocacy group.
“The people of Indiana received an incalculable level of value from Tom’s service,” Attorney General Rokita said. “He is a highly skilled and talented lawyer who could have made millions of dollars with his God-given talents over the last 20 years. Instead, he put those talents to good use for the people of Indiana, and as Hoosiers, we couldn’t be more thankful.”
The solicitor general oversees litigation involving constitutional challenges and other issues of vital interest to the state government.
Fisher will join EdChoice, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering every family to choose the educational environment that best fits their children’s needs.
“I am a lawyer who believes in a calling,” Fisher said. “And after two decades in the Office of Attorney General, I have been called to advance the cause of liberty on a new front.”
Nonetheless, leaving his current position was not an easy decision, said Fisher, who joined the Office of the Attorney General in 2001 and became solicitor general in 2005.
“It has been the professional honor of a lifetime to serve the people of Indiana as solicitor general, representing Hoosier values, common sense and the rule of law in courts here and across the nation,” Fisher said. “I am grateful to Attorney General Rokita and his predecessors — Attorneys General Hill, Zoeller and Carter — for affording me this challenging and gratifying opportunity. The people of Indiana are fortunate to have had such distinguished and visionary leaders as these to handle the important legal affairs of our state.”
Fisher also expressed gratitude to all the colleagues with whom he has worked over the years in the Office of the Attorney General.
“This is the finest, most consequential law firm in the state,” Fisher said, “and we should all be proud of the exceptional service our deputy attorneys general, paralegals and staff provide daily to Indiana citizens. I wish every citizen could see firsthand the hard work and dedication these talented professionals put forth daily to safeguard liberty and the rule of law.”
As solicitor general, Fisher has argued five times before the U.S. Supreme Court and dozens of times before the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and the Indiana Supreme Court. Fisher’s practice has also included authorship of dozens of amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts on a wide range of issues, including climate change, telephone privacy, law-enforcement defense, legislative prayer, Ten Commandments displays, the definition of marriage, abortion regulation, blocked railroad crossings, and the right to trial by jury, among many others.
Asked to name the three most memorable cases he has argued, Fisher cited Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (defending Indiana’s robust voter ID law in the U.S. Supreme Court), Meredith v. Daniels (defending Indiana’s school choice scholarship law in the Indiana Supreme Court) and Planned Parenthood v. Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana (defending Indiana’s new law protecting the unborn in the Indiana Supreme Court).
Fisher has received numerous awards for his efforts. Among others, he is a two-time recipient of the National Association of Attorneys General Best Brief Award for excellence in U.S. Supreme Court brief writing, was named a Fellow of the exclusive American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and was recently awarded the prestigious Senior Peck Medal by his alma mater, Wabash College.
“Without question, Tom Fisher is one of the finest public servants you’ll ever meet,” Attorney General Rokita said. “On top of that, he has one of the sharpest legal minds of his generation. While we’re certainly sorry to see him go, we also look forward to cheering his success in his next chapter.”
Robert C. Enlow, president, and CEO of EdChoice, said his organization is elated to hire a leader of Fisher’s caliber.
“With the rapid growth of universal choice in education over the last three years, Tom Fisher will be joining EdChoice as it expands its legal affairs work,” Enlow said. “With so many new programs and efforts around the country, there is more need than ever to provide legal services to the school choice movement.”
Attorney General Rokita is now conducting a nationwide search for Fisher’s successor.
