> I never tested anything like this, but I think it works if you \protect > the inner declaration like > > \footnote{foo \protect{\foo{foo}} foo} it's bad enough using the latex list for non-latex-research issues, but to post clueless rubbish to it is worse still. for the record: 1. \protect protects the next token (in your case "{"); to protect \foo, say \protect\foo, with no braces around it. 2. \protect has no effect on the working/non-working state of \verb. when lamport says in his manual that you can't use \verb in the argument of a command, he actually means what he says.