The former Solicitor General of West Virginia, Elbert chairs the firm’s Issues and Appeals practice. He has led many precedent-setting cases in appellate courts across the country, including a US Supreme Court victory called “the court’s most severe rebuke of a president” since the Truman administration (The Washington Post 2016). Elbert has been described by clients as a “terrific oral advocate” (Chambers USA 2021) and an “amazing thinker [and] strategist” (Chambers USA 2024).

With experience in the private sector and multiple branches of government, Elbert’s practice spans a wide range of issues, including major questions of constitutional and administrative law at the federal and state levels. He has argued nearly 60 cases in state and federal appellate courts, including before the US Supreme Court and several en banc courts of appeals.

In 2013, Elbert was appointed the Solicitor General of West Virginia. During his four-and-a-half year tenure, Elbert served as a member of the Attorney General’s senior management team, oversaw all civil and criminal appeals, and supervised the state’s federal litigation. He authored more than 25 briefs in the US Supreme Court and more than 45 formal Opinions of the Attorney General.

Earlier in his career, Elbert was a partner in the appellate and communications litigation groups of a national law firm and served as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the US Department of Justice’s Civil Division, where he received a Special Service Award. He has also been a law clerk at all three levels of the federal judiciary: for Justice Clarence Thomas on the US Supreme Court; for Judge William H. Pryor Jr. on the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; and for Senior Judge Robert E. Keeton on the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Elbert speaks regularly on a wide variety of topics, including constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, state and federal relations, the US Supreme Court, and appellate practice. He has testified before Congress, and has spoken at the national conventions of the American Bar Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Federalist Society, Americans for Prosperity, and the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Elbert is admitted to practice in the following federal courts: the Supreme Court of the United States; the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, D.C., and Federal Circuits; and the U.S. District Courts for the District of Columbia, the District of Massachusetts, the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia, and the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia.

Bar Admissions

Education
JD, Yale Law School, Managing Editor, The Yale Law Journal, 2003

BA, Yale University, magna cum laude, Distinction in the Major, Tau Beta Pi, 1999

• State Court Docket Watch: Morrisey v. West Virginia AFL-CIO, The Federalist Society
• Symposium: High stakes for federalism in heavyweight clash over the anti-commandeering doctrine, SCOTUSblog
• Last Call for Cooperative Federalism? Why EPA Must Withdraw SIP Call Proposal on Startup, Shutdown & Maintenance, Washington Legal Foundation
• Mitigating Municipality Litigation, US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform
• A Duty to Fight for Federalism, Washington Examiner
• French Fries to Fossil Fuels The Misplaced Reliance on UDAPs to Pursue Policy Agendas, U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform
• States Suing the Federal Government: Protecting Liberty or Playing Politics?  University of Richmond Law Review, Symposium Book, Volume 52
• Docket Watch: Blankenship v. Secretary of State, The Federalist Society Blog
• 10 Things to Know About the W.Va. Supreme Court of Appeals, Law360
• Will the Supreme Court Limit the Deference Afforded to an Agency’s Interpretation of Its Own Regulations?, 80 U.S.L.W. 1268
• No Notice, No Deference: Agency Deference After Christopher v. Smithkline Beecham Corp., Bloomberg Law
• In Arbitration, a Right to an Automatic Stay Pending Appeal?, Corporate Counsel
• Expert Analysis: Kavanaugh Comment May Spur Crop Of Nondelegation Cases, Law360
• At the Front of the Train: Justice Thomas Reexamines the Administrative State, 127 Yale L.J. F. 182
• Federal Overreach in Environmental Regulation: “A Severe Blow to the Constitution’s Separation of Powers” in Liberty’s Nemesis
• ISSUES AND APPEALS: Important Cases for Business from the Supreme Court’s October 2018 Term
• Can Courts “Vacate” Administrative Action Under the Administrative Procedure Act? A Concurring Opinion in a Recent Supreme Court Case Questions a Long Standing Practice, The Journal of Federal Agency Action