Marsha Berzon, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Clerks

Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: An Update

By  
on

After yesterday’s report on the latest developments in Supreme Court clerk hiring, we received word of several new hires, both by email and in the comments. So we thought we’d do a quick follow-up to pass along what we’ve heard.

Please keep in mind that we have not verified every hire to 100 percent accuracy; corrections may be posted later. This information is unofficial; the Supreme Court’s Public Information Office does not release the official list of October Term clerks until the immediately preceding summer.

With these caveats in mind, let’s take a look at the latest news, shall we?

So here is what we’ve heard. Again, caveat lector.

1. The fourth Alito clerk is apparently John Cerreta (Cornell 2005 / Chagares / Alito (3d Cir.)), currently at Debevoise.

(We’re guessing that Cerreta was clerking for then-Judge Alito but had his clerkship interrupted when his boss was elevated to the high court. Cerreta then clerked for Judge Michael Chagares — who is, by the way, a great guy. (We were colleagues in the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.N.J.))

2. The clerk hired by Chief Justice Roberts for October Term 2011 is Hagan Scotten (Harvard 2010 / Kavanaugh).

3. Justice Sotomayor has hired a Tatel Tot by the name of Abby Mollen (Northwestern 2008 / Tatel), currently at Simpson Thacher in New York.

4. Retired Justice O’Connor has hired Kristen Eichensehr (Yale 2008 / Garland), currently working in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department, the new home of former YLS dean Harold Koh.

We also have some more speculative information (no clerk names yet):

Sponsored

1. Justice Sotomayor hired (a) someone who was supposed to have clerked for her on the Second Circuit, and (b) a clerk to judicial superhottie Reena Raggi (2d Cir.). The Raggi clerk is said to be at the Office of Legal Counsel (aka Finishing School for the Elect).

2. Justice Ginsburg has started hiring for OT 2011 (so don’t bet on her retirement just yet). Word is that RBG has picked up a Boalt Hall grad and law clerk (former or current?) to the brilliant, fearsomely liberal Marsha Berzon — aka She Who Must Not Be Named.

(Random aside: Given Berzon’s brilliance, ideological orientation, and status as a member of the Elect herself (OT 1974 / Brennan), we’re surprised that she isn’t a bigger feeder judge. Perhaps she will feed more in the future — especially if Obama gets to replace some conservative justices with liberals.)

Have some of these missing names, other hiring news, or corrections? Por favor, email us (subject line: “SCOTUS clerk hiring”). Thanks!

OCTOBER TERM 2010 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of April 2, 2010)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts
1. Paul Crane (UVA 2007 / Wilkinson)
2. Kate Heinzelman (Yale 2009 / Garland)
3. Zac Hudson (Yale 2009 / Kavanaugh)
4. Kathryn Tarbert (Vanderbilt 2005 / Ginsburg (D.C. Cir.))

Sponsored

For October Term 2011: Hagan Scotten (Harvard 2010 / Kavanaugh).

Justice John Paul Stevens
1. Sam Erman (Michigan 2007 / Garland)

[Ed. note: JPS may be retiring.]

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

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
1. Steven Horowitz (Harvard 2009 / Posner)
2. Rob Johnson (Harvard 2009 / Kozinski)
3. Richard Re (Yale 2008 / Kavanaugh)
4. James Stern (UVA 2009 / Wilkinson)

For October Term 2011: Ishan Bhabha (Harvard 2009 / Garland).

Justice Clarence Thomas
1. Will Peterson (Texas 2008 / Jones (5th Cir.))
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. John Cerreta (Cornell 2005 / Chagares / Alito (3d Cir.))
2. Steven Menashi (Stanford 2008 / D. Ginsburg)
3. Garrick Sevilla (Duke 2007 / J.R. Brown (D.C. Cir.))
4. Tara Stuckey (Notre Dame 2007 / Sutton)

Justice Sonia Sotomayor
1. Abby Mollen (Northwestern 2008 / Tatel)
2. Amy Mason Saharia (Duke 2005 / Chatigny (D. Conn.) / Newman)
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (retired):
1. Kristen Eichensehr (Yale 2008 / Garland)

Justice David H. Souter (retired):
1. ?

SCOTUS OT 2010 [Law Clerk Addict]
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)

Topics

, , ,