Time and tide wait for no man. Not even Paul Clement.

The former solicitor general, now a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, has a well-deserved reputation as one of the nation's top appellate advocates. But he still couldn't save a $10 billion fraud suit against Barclays Bank PLC. On Thursday, a New York state appellate court upheld a lower court ruling that tossed the suit, ruling it was time-barred.

It was a big victory for Willkie Farr & Gallagher—and a nice illustration of why you don't change horses in mid-stream. Rather than frantically calling up, say, Seth Waxman or Ted Olson or Carter Phillips, Barclays on appeal stuck with its original lawyer, Willkie Farr partner Todd Cosenza.