David Thomas reports on the business of law, including law firm strategy, hiring, mergers and litigation. One of Breyer's clerks, Ketanji Brown Jackson, replaced him on the high court on June 30. ', After their year at the elbow of a Supreme Court Justice, the 36 are in incredibly high demand. Compensation But theres no shortage of online commentary for those of you who would like to learn more (e.g., this somewhat tongue-in-cheek post fromUnderneath Their Robes). Among the 38 total new clerks, all but four graduated from schools in the so-called T-14, those ranked in the top 14 by U.S. News & World Report. US Labor Dept axes Trump-era expansion of exemptions from anti-bias laws, 2023 State of the Courts Report: Moving toward modernization, US enforcement seeks fraud among emerging, unregulated finance spaces, Recommended change management practices to plan, build, then deploy successful legal tech, How best to integrating climate-conscious clauses in supply chain contracts, Exclusive news, data and analytics for financial market professionals. After graduation, they have clerked for one of the 179 active U.S. Court of Appeals judges, preferably one who has a reputation for sending clerks to the court.. They're already confident in you, so their main task is to see if they connect with you on a personal level.Hopefully this shouldn't be too tricky as the people who recommended youalready have a relationship with the Justice and have thought about personality and ideological fit after all, they're sending you to live with someone for a year.The importance of recommendations from others during the hiring process cannot be overstated: it'snot just old guys in smoky rooms making the decisions.. -- See Also, Heres a snapshot in to Sotomayors brain, Verbal spats in opinions may not be the best thing for the judiciary. Supreme Court clerks play a crucial role in the work of #SCOTUS. Delaware No Swiping! On average, GW tends to place a clerk on the Supreme Court every two years, and on two occasions, two of its graduates have clerked in the same year. Supreme Court clerks play a crucial role in the work of #SCOTUS. Feel free to email herwith any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1). What Happened To Reading The Fine Print? Despite some challenges with management and work-life balance, the reviews from former and current employees are overwhelmingly [], 2023 State of the Lateral Law Firm Market. unlimited access to all of BCGs articles. Delaware No Swiping! Courts, David Lat, SCOTUS Clerks, Supreme Court. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. We find that educational pedigree, as opposed to academic performance or any other qualification, often distinguishes the winners from the also-rans. Primarily, their role is to sift through the thousands of petitions and mark the cases worthy of being granted time. Amid pressure campaign to step down, Breyer taps Yale, Stanford and Chicago grads, One Breyer clerk worked for the justice's brother, a California federal judge. A lifetime appointment means never having to say youre sorry. Is judicial clerkship hard? Learn the exact amount that each law school has produced since 1960 in this chart. Is Your Firm Keeping Pace With The Advancements In eDiscovery? Want to be a Supreme Court clerk? Stuck Drafting A Tough Brief? More than two-thirds of law clerks for U.S. Supreme Court justices come from just five law schools, according to a study covering the period between 1980 and 2020. Third-year students and law school graduates are eligible to apply anytime after the application period has opened. The top four clerk-producing schools are also the top four U.S. News schools, but the order is different, with Chicago coming in ahead of Stanford (which was certainly my sense from anecdotal observation, which the data confirms). Deutsch and Kim are Yale Law School. //]]> A report from our friends at Thomson Reuters will help you benchmark legal spend, find greater efficiency, and innovate for the future. SCOTUS clerkships Clerking at the Supreme Court, as told by the lucky few who've been there, done that, got the judicial robe. Ohio University alumna Sarah Welch '16 is headed to Washington, D.C., where she'll clerk for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Sure makes reading them more interesting though, Fox Huffs About Journalistic Integrity, Even As It Admits To Feeding Biden Data To Trump Campaign, Civil Rights Organization Gets In The NASCAR Sponsorship Game, Cheeky Voicemail Costs Law Student Biglaw Opportunity, Sonia Sotomayor Has Thoughts On Conservative Justices' Plans To Cancel Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness, Delaware No Swiping! [CDATA[ Going to college at Harvard, Yale or Princetoneven after controlling for law school gradesgave applicants a significant boost, the study found.. Conservatives on the Supreme Court seem 'skeptical' about Biden's debt relief plan. Goddard Media LLC | Privacy Policy, Political Wire is a registered trademark of Goddard Media LLC, Three Republicans Eye Michigans Senate Seat, Economy Remains the Publics Top Policy Priority , J.D. Washington University is in top five, while Yale is mostly No. Heres How To Get Yours Right. A Supreme Court clerkship is a one- or two-year period of service during which the clerk assists one or more of the justices in researching cases, writing opinions, and maintaining the justice's chambers. Five other schools in the so-called top-14 or T14 schoolsNYU, Michigan, UVA, Berkeley, and Columbiaare also in the top ten for SCOTUS clerks. SCOTUS clerkships are the toughest positions to land. Lets start with the top ten law schoolsactually eleven, since theres a tie for tenth place: Yale, the #1 law school in the U.S. News rankings, is also the top law school in minting Supreme Court clerk clerksby a large margin. Do not sell my information. Sure makes reading them more interesting though. In making clerk hiring decisions, justices are not at the mercy of law school admissions this is a choice being made. note: This columnoriginally appearedonOriginal Jurisdiction, the latest Substack publication from David Lat. OK I'm sold. While hiring tends to occur in late spring/early summer of 3L year, recruitment can be open and continuous. Location 1775 WIEHLE AVE STE 400, RESTON, Virginia. [1] The list is divided into separate lists for each position in the Supreme Court. You learn very quickly how to handle yourself beyond just thinking 'wow, these people are brilliant!' An estimated 84% of the law clerks are white and 66% are male. Hoglund graduated from Stanford Law School, and Wacks is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School. Clerks read briefs, hear arguments, write memoranda, and make recommendations about how issues and cases ought to be resolved. Aug 2017 - Jun 20224 years 11 months. Harvard is next with eight clerks, followed by Stanford with seven, according to a Reuters analysis. Tell us in the comments below. Clerks can command signing bonuses worth $400,000 at major U.S. law firms after their stint ends at the court. 25 of the Most Important Facts That Attorneys, Law Students, and Partners Need to Know About Law Firm Politics, Katten Muchin Rosenman Announces Layoffs and Reinstatements Amidst COVID-19 Challenges. Three University of Chicago Law School alumni will clerk on the US Supreme Court during the October 2022 term. Bijan Aboutorabi, '18, will clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, and David Suska, '16 and Lael Weinberger, '18, will clerk for Justice Neil Gorsuch. Witnesses Take Stand in South Carolina Murder Trial. Justice Jacksons Jurisprudence Holds No Shelter For Finders Keepers: Take that, Delaware! Thatsa process failure. Yale Law School had the second representation with 74 clerks . Four justices have law degrees from Yale Law School and four from Harvard Law School. These clinics are competitive to get into. The practice of law has always been an apprenticeship you learn best by example. And the famous people are only the tip of the iceberg. This means helping organize and prioritize the voluminous legal challenges that get filed in the Supreme Court each year, researching and writing about cutting-edge and controversial legal issues, helping draft opinions, serving as sounding boards for the justices, andat the highest levelhelping justices develop and hone their legal philosophies and legacies. Biden's student loan relief faces its biggest test yet at the Supreme Court. New York Times: "Each justice typically hires four law clerks per term. This means they are working on very important cases. Some expect bonuses for former clerks to hit $450,000 this year. The decision may have gone the other way if Delaware just remembered to yell 'Dibs!' 30, has two alumni headed to the high court. Its like the justices arent even trying. While few would question the intellectual ability of a top student from a top law school like Harvard or Yale to handle the analytical rigors of a Supreme Court clerkship, some question whether a high court dominated by a few elite schools and their graduates is wise for the country and for the evolution of the law. For better or worse, federal clerkships are the brass ring of the legal profession, designed to be an indicia of elite legal thinking. Some justices received no legal education in a university setting, but were instead either trained through apprenticeships or were self-taught, as was common with many lawyers prior to the mid-20th century. Do you think there is a problem with the Supreme Court being affiliated with only Harvard and Yale students? And you don't go to the Supreme Court straight from law school usually all successful candidates have previously clerked at federal appellate level, and wowed their judges there. CLERKING at the Supreme Court of the United States is the holy grail, the most prestigious gig any law grad can get. [1] Most readers of this publication understand the desirability and prestige of Supreme Court clerkships and the important role that clerks play in helping the justices go about their work, so I wont belabor that here. And it's a firing offense for any employee except a justice. We interview lawyers year-round and turn their insights into guidance for you. Heres How To Get Yours Right. You get letters from firms as soon as you start,explains one. : Heres a snapshot in to Sotomayors brain. And its also true that elitism is a feature, not a bug of the legal profession. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers. Photo by Fred Schilling via the Supreme Court website. US Supreme Court doubt over student debt relief looms over Biden agenda, In Justice Jackson's first ruling, US Supreme Court decides MoneyGram case, Novavax raises doubts about ability to remain in business, shares fall, U.S. House votes to block ESG investment rule in latest culture war salvo. Applicants must possess a degree from an accredited law school as of the appointment date for the clerkship. These justices were educated at the equivalent of what would today be an undergraduate level, but did not receive legal education at the graduate level, the model under which law schools in the U.S. are currently organized. You also need to be familiar with all the pending cases the Court is hearing, to demonstrate you have a clear interest in that Court., The ex-clerks we spoke to found their interview more relaxed than anticipated. [2] Among their many functions, clerks do legal research that assists justices in deciding what cases to accept and what questions to ask during oral arguments, prepare memoranda, and draft orders and opinions. The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University has expanded its efforts to help students secure highly coveted positions, resulting in 34 students securing judicial clerkships in both 2018 and 2019 all-time highs for ASU Law. It is a four-year program designed to provide educational and practical experience through a combination of work and study with an experienced lawyer or judge. Learn. The Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, ranked No. An association of a clerk with any justice doesn't necessarily mean the two share identical legal philosophies. What Happened To Reading The Fine Print? If confirmed, Neil Gorsuch will join this group, as Gorsuch clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. 23. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh both attended Georgeton Prep, an elite private high school where annual tuition is upwards of $40,000. WASHINGTON Supreme Court justices make $265,600 a year. That's very thoughtful of you.Things at Vedder are great. the issue of bar examination failures is moot. Many Colorado Law graduates choose to work as a judicial clerk for one- or two-year terms for state or federal courts. Subscribe and get breaking news, commentary, and opinions on law firms, lawyers, law schools, lawsuits, judges, and more. Each of the eight Associated Justices on the Supreme Court can select four law clerks each term. Since 1960, Harvard has always led Yale (as well as every other law school) in sending clerks to the Supreme Court, except for the period from 2010 to the present, when Yale sent 91 clerks and Harvard sent 90. After a year of service at the court, they are . Laugh Out Loud with the Best Legal Joke of the Day Legal Humor to Brighten Your Day! LexisNexis Brief Analysis produces powerful, near-instant legal argumentation insights using the power of AI. David Lat, the founding editor of Above the Law, is a writerand speaker about law and legal affairs. Of course, Im talking about ASSLaw otherwise known asGeorge Mason Universitys Antonin Scalia Law School, for the uninitiated. Suspicion has fallen partly on the court's clerks due to their access to draft opinions. List of law schools attended by United States Supreme Court justices, Fowler v. Harper, "Justice Rutledge and The Bright Constellation" (1965) pp.9-10, Last edited on 23 February 2023, at 04:39, Cincinnati Law School (University of Cincinnati College of Law), Washington and Lee University School of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, University of MissouriKansas City School of Law, https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eYxoeW1_AXsC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=wiley+b.+rutledge+biography&ots=rf9KxIpccB&sig=rYkVZWRICGJ-9M2dxgZMas_INJg#v=onepage&q=wiley%20b.%20rutledge%20biography&f=false, "Members of the Supreme Court from the Supreme Court of the United States", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_law_schools_attended_by_United_States_Supreme_Court_justices&oldid=1141063511, This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 04:39. Sept. 21, 2020. Which Law Schools Produce the Most SCOTUS Law Clerks? A report from our friends at Thomson Reuters will help you benchmark legal spend, find greater efficiency, and innovate for the future. The industry leader for online information for tax, accounting and finance professionals. Jeffrey S. Sutton, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (2017-2018). Backed by the power of Employment Research Institute, there is no other publisher in the world more uniquely qualified to write to, and for, legal professionals. Syracuse office of a BCG Attorney Search Top Ranked Law Firm seeks senior health care transactional Rochester office of a BCG Attorney Search Top Ranked Law Firm seeks senior health care transactional Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP is a law firm with a positive work environment, dedicated colleagues, and a commitment to excellence. Most clerks are recent law school graduates, who have typically graduated at the top of their class. Only 36 SCOTUS clerkships come up for grabs each year. Brown '17 Earns Supreme Court Clerkship May 26, 2021 UCLA School of Law alumna Whitney A. It helps. Only 5 schools are more represented than GMU. The Supreme Court identified Breyer's clerks as Elizabeth Deutsch, Erika Hoglund, Diana Kim and Joel Wacks. Moreover, most judicial clerks come to SCOTUS having already completed at least one significant clerkship for a judge on one of the countrys Circuit Courts of Appeal. As depicted on the chart below, the Harvard-Yale trend we see with Supreme Court justices also applies with SCOTUS law clerks. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. But Republican judges say theyre looking for ideological purists, and thats a thing ASSLaw has to spare. NYU and Columbia, the two top New York City schools, are frequently compared with each other, and theyre definitely rivals. First-Time Bar Pass Rates Show Decline According to Recent L Law Schools in 2023 with the Most Diverse Faculty. At the time of writing, all of our interviewees were working at Jones Day. There are a number of better public law schools that dont have any clerks on the Court, see, e.g., Berkeley, UCLA, Florida, Minnesota, UNC, Alabama, Iowa, Georgia. October 4, 2022. It's up to you and your Justice when you start to interview at firms usually it's in June or July. Only the brightest and very, very best need apply. Among next terms other new clerks is Giuliana Cipollone, a 2021 graduate of Stanford Law School and the daughter of former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone, a connection first reported in March by legal blogger David Lat. In total, of the 114 justices appointed to the Court, 49 have had law degrees, an additional 18 attended some law school but did not receive a degree, and 47 received their legal education without any law school attendance.[2]. There are over 200 law schools in the country, so how is it that these two produced such amazing results? Access unmatched financial data, news and content in a highly-customised workflow experience on desktop, web and mobile. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. However, Woodbury did not earn a law degree. Raymond W . [2] Id say that a law schools success at producing SCOTUS clerks is generally a function of two things: the caliber of its student body, and the interest of its students in opportunities like SCOTUS clerkships. But lost in this discussion . Because the best law schools are EVEN MORE diverse than the average: Yale Law is at 54 percent students of color, Harvard Law is at 56 percent students of color. Before entering the media and recruiting worlds, David worked as a federal prosecutor, a litigation associate at Wachtell Lipton, and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. OScannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Wacks also clerked for Judge Margaret McKeown on the 9th U.S. Introducing our 2023-2024 Supreme Court clerks Meet our five students and recent alumni who were tapped to clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2023-2024: Anne-Isabelle Cloutier, Yasmeen Dajani, David D'Astous, Zackary Goldford, and Jessica Michelin 21 April 2022 Anne-Isabelle Cloutier, BCL/JD'20 - Chief Justice Richard Wagner If word leaks about a business case, those who get the word early can make millions trading stocks. Many former clerks go on to important positions in private legal practice and in various government positions. And dont be deliberately obtuse: its not a private schools are better argument. Like with the gender issues, this is whiter than law school classes generally (for example, the incoming class of 2021 had 34.7 percent people of color). The position of Supreme Court clerk is considered to be one of the most prestigious and coveted positions in the legal profession. I went to that school and thats correct, (@fawkyearVA) July 22, 2022. Dating back since 1960, graduates of Harvard Law School lead the list of youngsters privileged enough to clerk for a Supreme Court justice, followed by graduates of Yale Law School. The pool of realistic SCOTUS clerk candidates are a truly niche within a niche group, and they run in very specific circles. Best not put your immaturity on display if you want to work in Biglaw. Well, youd be wrong! 2023 Breaking Media, Inc. All rights reserved. These things may appear resume-focused, but they're also a lot of fun!. People you meet on Law Review come back and talk about the experience they've had and you learn a lot from it. Bijan Aboutorabi, '18. Give us feedback, share a story tip or update, or report an error. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction on itsAbout page, and you can subscribe through thissignup page. The level of aggression varies, but generally there's a two-week period where you get taken to lunch by everyone. Why Work Here? Sri Srinivasan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. The same things students do to make themselves competitive also allow you to meet the recommendation people and have them like you.Our sources concurred thatyou've got to have a very strong paper record before recommenders will help you.The ex-clerks we spoke to hadjumped through every hoop necessary,but not just out of a sense of duty. Summary: Use this chart and corresponding article to learn which law schools produce the most Supreme Court law clerks and justices. 1, Legal Ed data shows decrease in first-time bar pass rates. And the study found that some college degrees also count. During that period, Harvard sent 491 law clerks to the high court and Yale sent 378. Delaware No Swiping! See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Something similar to what federal court clerks do. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. I did those things for years because I enjoyed them,says one. Determining If The President Has The Authority To Cancel Loans Is One Thing, But Does The Court? A January analysis of retired justice Stephen Breyers 120-plus clerks found that about a third of them pursued careers in large law firms, some leading nationwide appellate practices. [2], Which law schools outside the T14 are top ten when it comes to SCOTUS clerks? Over the years, concerns have been raised re: clerk diversity. //