Washington DC-based litigator was originally called in to advise on legal accuracy of scenes in third season
A partner at transatlantic law firm Hogan Lovells appears in the latest season of House of Cards.
Washington DC-based litigator Neal Katyal was originally brought in to advise on the legal accuracy of scenes in the third season of the show during its filming last summer.
But producers were so taken with Katyal that they asked him to appear in a US Supreme Court scene in the fourth episode.
In it, the Hogan Lovells man plays the lawyer in a case about drone strikes who is opposing the arguments made by a fictional Solicitor General.
Neal Katyal: former acting Solicitor General, @HoganLovells partner, @GeorgetownLaw prof, @HouseofCards actor: pic.twitter.com/pMCHswSdf7
— Mike Sacks (@MikeSacksEsq) February 27, 2015
It was actually pretty astute casting, given that legal hotshot Katyal did a spell as Acting US Solicitor General in 2011 before joining Hogan Lovells, and has argued 24 cases before the real US Supreme Court.
Of the cameo, Katyal told the Washington Post:
“Because the fake court felt so much like the real one, my fear evaporated really quickly and it felt like any of my 24 real arguments.”