It is the highest court in the nation, the most elite of this country’s judicial system.

Two Ironton attorneys can now say they’ve stood before the U.S. Supreme Court and have been given the proper documentation to argue cases before it, if the occasion should ever arise.

Frederick “Derick” Fisher Jr. and Mark McCown were recently admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court Bar Association.

They were nominated by attorney Richard Meyers and Lawrence County Common Pleas Judge Charles Cooper. Cooper, who was admitted to the Supreme Court bar 28 years ago, accompanied the two nominees to Washington, D.C., and made the official request to the court on their

To be eligible to be admitted, a lawyer must undergo a background check, be in good standing with the state bar association, be nominated by two other legal professionals and must have practiced law for at least three years. The process took approximately six months.

“It was an enjoyable experience to be admitted in open court like that, to be able to stand up in front of all nine justices, about four feet away from them,” McCown said.

“It was wonderful,” Fisher said. “Some view this as the pinnacle of our profession and I am one of those people.”

The affair was formal, Cooper noted. After the opening of the Supreme Court, the solicitor general of the United States made a motion to allow Cooper to address the court.

After the motion was granted, Cooper, who was given a tightly scripted format to follow, stood to introduce McCown and Fisher and ask that they be admitted to the bar. Once that motion was granted, Fisher and McCown were sworn in by the clerk of the Supreme Court.

“I made a motion before the U.S. Supreme Court — and it was granted,” Cooper mused. “It was nice to go through that. It was such a moving experience and it was an opportunity to get close to the real operations of government. You can’t get just in to see the president or the speaker of the house but I got within 10 feet of the entire Supreme Court. We were invited to stay and hear oral arguments. We were there probably from about 9:30 (a.m.) to about 12 and we just soaked up this wonderful atmosphere.”

Cooper estimated about a half a dozen local attorneys have been admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court Bar Association.