Factbox: Contrasting legal styles in Supreme Court Obamacare drama

(Reuters) - When the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the new challenge to President Barack Obama’s healthcare law on Wednesday, the justices will hear from two experienced attorneys with dueling views and contrasting styles. Here is a look at the two men. DONALD VERRILLI U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, 57, will defend the law for the Obama administration. He is known for a low-key, often nuanced approach. When Verrilli argued on behalf of the law the first time, in 2012, news and political commentators lambasted him. “This was a train wreck for the Obama administration,” CNN legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin said at the time, contending Verrilli’s style was shaky and his responses ineffective. The Obama administration’s top courtroom lawyer got the last word when the justices upheld the Affordable Care Act on a 5-4 vote. Verrilli, who earlier specialized in appellate work for the large firm of Jenner & Block, has appeared a total of 40 times before the justices. At a legal conference after the 2012 case he was asked how he felt about the heat he took. “I ought to be subject to criticism like any other government official with a weighty responsibility," he said. "I’m OK with that. That’s just the nature of the process.” MICHAEL CARVIN Michael Carvin, 58, who will urge the justices to curtail a key part of the law, exudes a forceful, even agitated, demeanor. “I’m from New York and I talk fast and I’m sarcastic,” said Carvin, adding that in court he tries to be respectful. Carvin is representing four Virginians who say they do not want federal subsidies that would subject them to a health-insurance requirement. They were enlisted by the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has long opposed Obamacare and is financing the challenge. A former Reagan administration lawyer who represented George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election dispute in Florida, Carvin works for Jones Day, a large U.S.-based law firm that has taken up libertarian and conservative causes before. In the 2012 healthcare case, Carvin represented one set of challengers, the National Federation of Independent Business. Three years ago, Carvin did not face Verrilli as directly as now in the case of King v. Burwell. The central confrontation then was between Verrilli and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, on behalf of Florida and other states opposing Obamacare. Carvin has appeared before the justices seven times. At the same conference where Verrilli talked about public criticism, Carvin mentioned second-guessing he faced in the Florida election case: "The guys who are in the arena are always going to get a disproportionate number of artillery shells shot at them.” (Compiled by Joan Biskupic)