Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Justice Kagan's Clerks!

As of yesterday, Justice Elena Kagan had not hired her four law clerks for October Term 2010, as reported by Tony Mauro in the National Law Journal. But that was then, and this is now.

Justice Kagan, who was sworn in on Saturday, isn’t wasting any time in getting her chambers up and running. Lady Kaga has hired her four little monsters for OT 2010.

Just as Justice Sonia Sotomayor did last year, Justice Kagan is hiring outgoing Supreme Court clerks — i.e., clerks who just finished up with their justices — to ease her transition. Out of her four clerks for the upcoming Term, three also clerked on the Court in the Term just ended (October Term 2009).

Not surprisingly, the former dean of Harvard Law School bleeds Crimson. At least two of Justice Kagan’s four clerks are HLS graduates. One is a graduate of Yale Law School (the alma mater of Justice Kagan’s late father). (We’re still waiting for the name and law school of the fourth clerk.)

UPDATE: We’ve learned the name of the fourth Kagan clerk. She’s also a Harvard Law grad, leaving Justice Kagan with three out of four clerks from HLS. More details after the jump.

So who will be joining the Divine Miss K in the heavenly confines of One First Street?

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Here are Justice Kagan’s law clerks for October Term 2010:

1. Andrew Crespo (Harvard 2008 / Reinhardt / S. Breyer)

2. Allon Kedem (Yale 2005 / Kravitz (D. Conn.) / Leval / A. Kennedy)

3. Elizabeth B. Prelogar (née Elizabeth Barchas)
(Harvard 2008 / Garland / R. Ginsburg)

4. ???

The fourth hire is rumored to be a “Tricia,” currently enrolled at the Finishing School for the Elect (i.e., the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel). If you can confirm or shoot down this rumor or provide us with more info about the elusive “Tricia,” please email us (subject line: “SCOTUS clerk hiring”).

UPDATE: The fourth Kagan clerk is Trisha Anderson (Harvard / Sutton / Covington / OLC), who is described as a “very nice person.” It’s interesting that Anderson clerked for Judge Jeff Sutton (6th Cir.), a former Scalia clerk who comes from the right side of the aisle. Justice Kagan’s other three clerks come from more liberal feeder judges (including the uber-liberal Judge Reinhardt).

Also note that Allon Kedem comes from Justice Kennedy’s chambers — very shrewd of Justice Kagan to hire someone who knows how AMK thinks and how the swing justice will approach cases.

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Now that we know the Kagan clerks, here are the lists of OT 2010 and OT 2011 law clerks. If you have any additions or corrections, please email us (subject line: “SCOTUS clerk hiring”). Thanks!


OCTOBER TERM 2010 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of August 10, 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.))

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)

Justice Clarence Thomas
1. Matthew Fitzgerald (UVA 2008 / Carnes)
2. Allison Jones (Duke 2007 / Gorsuch / Sentelle)
3. Elbert Lin (Yale 2003 / W. Pryor)
4. Will Peterson (Texas 2008 / Jones (5th Cir.))

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. Kevin Arlyck (NYU 2008 / Katzmann)
2. Thomas Lue (Harvard 2005 / Raggi / G. Lynch)
3. Abby Mollen (Northwestern 2008 / Tatel)
4. Amy Mason Saharia (Duke 2005 / Chatigny (D. Conn.) / Newman)

Justice Elena Kagan
1. Andrew Crespo (Harvard 2008 / Reinhardt / S. Breyer)
2. Allon Kedem (Yale 2005 / Kravitz (D. Conn.) / Leval / A. Kennedy)
3. Elizabeth B. Prelogar (née Elizabeth Barchas)
(Harvard 2008 / Garland / R. Ginsburg)
4. Trisha Anderson (Harvard / Sutton)

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

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

Justice David H. Souter (retired):
1. Brook Hopkins (Harvard 2007 / Bleeding Reinhardt)


OCTOBER TERM 2011 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of August 10, 2010)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts
1. Hagan Scotten (Harvard 2010 / Kavanaugh)
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Antonin Scalia
1. Donald Burke (UVA 2008 / Kethledge)
2. Rebecca Krauss (Yale 2010 / Kavanaugh)
2. John Moran (UVA 2010 / Sutton)
4. Carl Marchioli (Harvard 2010 / Colloton)

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
1. Ishan Bhabha (Harvard 2009 / Garland)
2. Leah Litman (Michigan 2010 / Sutton)
3. ?
4. ?

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

(Rumor: Justice Thomas “hired two [earlier this month]. One of them is for 2011, the other for 2012. Both Wilkinson, one UVA, one NW.”)

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1. Benjamin Beaton (Columbia 2009 / Randolph)
2. Jennifer Clark (Georgetown 2008 / Tatel Tot)
3. Gerry Sinzdak (Berkeley 2008 / Berzon)
4. Rachel Wainer Apter (Harvard 2007/Katzmann/Rakoff)

Justice Stephen G. Breyer
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

(Rumor: Justice Breyer has started interviewing and hiring; he has hired one Georgetown grad for OT 2011.)

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

Justice Sonia Sotomayor
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

(Rumor: Justice Sotomayor has made offers to various people whom she hired to clerk for her at the Second Circuit.)

Justice Elena Kagan
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice John Paul Stevens (retired)
1. Dina Mishra (Yale 2009 / Boudin)

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

Justice David H. Souter (retired):
1. Matthew Tokson (Chicago 2008 / Randolph)

If you notice an error or omission, if you can fill in a blank, or if you have some information that we haven’t already reported, please email us (subject line: “SCOTUS clerk hiring”). Thanks.

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)