D.C. legal eagle, Scotusblog.com author Tom Goldstein inspires TV pilot, "Tommy Supreme"

Tom Goldstein in his Akin Gump offices in Washington. (Stephen Voss/Bloomberg)

One possible winner in the scorched-earth battle over NBC's late-night lineup: Washington lawyer Tom Goldstein.

The Akin Gump partner and author of the influential Scotusblog.com is the central character in a TV pilot commissioned by NBC. Under the working title "Tommy Supreme," it's been pitched as the story of a cocky young litigator who argues Supreme Court cases -- kind of like Goldstein, 39, who's argued 21 cases before the high court since 1999. Of course, NBC hadn't been much in the market for new legal dramas lately, what with Jay Leno filling the 10 p.m. weeknight spot. But "now we've got that bastard Jay off the air" in that time slot, Goldstein joked, "so we may have a chance."

So a drama, not a comedy? "It's basically just sad," he said. "Nothing but a sense of quiet desperation." Oh, come on! Goldstein's no average lawyer; he played in the 2008 World Series of Poker. But he declined to speculate about casting. "Anybody that looks like me would be just so humiliated. There's no upside in me taking a position."