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Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: A Look at OT 2010

Monday, July 6, 2009 2:02 PM - By David Lat

Supreme Court hallway Above the Law Above the Law Above the Law.JPGWelcome to July, a month of transitions at the U.S. Supreme Court. The law clerks for October Term 2009 will be starting up at One First Street this month. The OT 2008 clerks are riding off into the sunset — and six-figure signing bonuses. [FN1]

So OT 2009 clerk hiring is pretty much done — to check out the incoming class of the Elect, see here — with one notable exception: Sonia Sotomayor. If you have information about what Judge Sotomayor plans to do on the clerk hiring front if and when she becomes Justice Sotomayor, please email us (subject line: “Sotomayor Clerk Situation”). We understand that at least some of her 2009-2010 Second Circuit clerks have already started with her; what will happen to them if and when she gets confirmed to the high court?

With OT 2009 behind them, the justices are turning their attention to October Term 2010. And so are we.

Check out the list of OT 2010 hires, after the jump.

[FN1] On the subject of SCOTUS clerk bonuses, reports of the demise of the $250,000 signing bonus may be greatly exaggerated. We hear through the grapevine that some New York offices are offering $250K signing bonuses to outgoing Supreme Court clerks. But it does appear to be the case that the $250K bonus is less common this year than last year, especially in D.C.

Some of these hires are recent, and some are less recent. For your information, we generally don’t report SCOTUS clerk hiring in real time; we usually wait until we have a critical mass of names to announce. We have now reached that point with respect to new OT 2010 hires. (For OT 2009 clerks, who are starting this month, check out this list.)

We are fairly confident in the accuracy of the information appearing below, which has been confirmed by multiple sources (with the exception of Keith Bradley to Justice Ginsburg via the surprising route of Janice Rogers Brown, the noted conservative judicial diva). If you notice an error or omission, or if you can fill in some information that we are missing, please email us (subject line: “SCOTUS clerk hiring”).

OCTOBER TERM 2010 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of July 6, 2009)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice John Paul Stevens
1. Sam Erman (Michigan 2007 / Garland)
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Antonin Scalia
1. Robert Allen (Harvard 2009 / Boudin)
2. Matt Owen (Michigan 2008 / Gorsuch (about to start Bristow Fellowship))
3. Adam Unikowsky (Harvard 2007 / D. Ginsburg)
4. Jason Wilcox (Chicago 2009 / Sutton)

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
1. Steven Horowitz (Harvard 2009 / Posner)
2. Richard Re (Yale 2008 / Kavanaugh)
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Clarence Thomas
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1. Amy Bergquist (U. Minnesota 2007 / W. Fletcher / J. Tunheim (D. Minn.))
2. Keith Bradley (Columbia 2007 / Janice Rogers Brown)
3. David Newman (Yale 2006 / Katzmann / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.))
4. Elisabeth Theodore (Harvard 2009 / Garland)

Justice Stephen G. Breyer
1. Erika Myers (Stanford 2008 / Kozinski)
2. Brian Netter (Yale 2006 / Rogers (D.C. Cir.))
3. Natalie Ram (Yale 2008 / Calabresi)
4. David Zionts (Harvard 2008 / Garland)

Justice Samuel Alito
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Successor to Justice David H. Souter (Sonia Sotomayor?)
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (retired):
1. ?

If you’re aware of SCOTUS clerk hiring news not previously reported in these pages, or if you notice an error, please email us (subject line: “SCOTUS clerk hiring”). Thanks.

SCOTUS Clerk Hiring [Clerkship Notification Blog]
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States [Wikipedia]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Supreme Court clerks (scroll down)

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Posted in: SCOTUS, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Clerks

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