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Musical Chairs: From Supreme Court Clerk to Winston & Strawn Partner

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A Supreme Court clerkship is, in the words of Adam Liptak of the New York Times, “the most coveted credential in American law.” When SCOTUS clerks leave their posts at the Court to join private law firms, they get signing bonuses of as much as $250,000 (on top of normal associate salaries and bonuses).

But typically they join their firms as associates (or maybe counsel, if they have a few extra years of practice in addition to clerking). How many clerks come in to Biglaw as partners?

As reported yesterday — by Tony Mauro in The BLT and by Marisa Kashino in Washingtonian magazine, among others — at least one Supreme Court clerk from the Term just ended, October Term 2009, is going to straight into a partnership at a major law firm.

Meet Elizabeth Papez. She clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas in OT 2009. Now she’s joining the D.C. office of Winston & Strawn, where she will practice in commercial and appellate litigation, with a focus on intellectual property and energy law, as well as government relations.

We interview Papez about her interesting career path, after the jump.

ATL: First off, congratulations on your joining Winston & Strawn!

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Papez: Thanks!

ATL: So let’s rewind a bit. You graduated from Harvard Law School in 1999; from 2000 to 2007, you were a litigator at Kirkland & Ellis, where you made partner; and from 2007 to 2009, you worked in the Department of Justice’s uber-powerful Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), where you served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General.

In light of all this, why did you decide to clerk for the Supreme Court? As Washingtonian magazine noted, you “already had the kind of career that Supreme Court clerks, who are usually at most a few years out of school, aspire to.”

Papez: The experience. The clerkship is an opportunity to spend a year backstage at one of the country’s most important institutions. It’s an opportunity not just to assist with the cases, but also to bump into the justices in the halls, have lunch with them, see how they interact and engage some of the most complex legal issues and best advocacy around. That’s an opportunity that would interest me at any stage of my career.

ATL: Right out of law school, you clerked for a well-known circuit judge, Danny J. Boggs of the Sixth Circuit, who famously gives his clerkship applicants a trivia quiz — er, a “general knowledge test.” Then you had a distinguished career in both private and government practice, before returning to clerking, with Justice Thomas. Can you tell us a bit more about your path to a Supreme Court clerkship?

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Papez: Clerking is something I never expected to do, and didn’t apply for out of law school. I’m first generation American, had no lawyers in my family, and I was thrilled just to graduate, do my circuit clerkship, and go to a firm. The jobs at DOJ and the Court resulted in large part from opportunities that people at Kirkland and clients gave me to do good work and build relationships, some of which lead down unexpected paths. At the end of the day, I was fortunate to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that came my way even though they didn’t come in the usual order.

ATL: I’m a huge fan of your boss, Justice Thomas — heck, I wrote a piece for the Washington Post arguing that he should run for president. Can you tell us about what it was like to clerk for CT?

Papez: Exceeded expectations, which were high to begin with. He’s incredibly thoughtful and engaged, and I think the dedication and principle he brings to his work is apparent in his opinions, which have contributed greatly to many areas of the Court’s jurisprudence.

ATL: Compared to some of his colleagues, Justice Thomas often likes to hire clerks with more experience and a few years of post-law-school practice under their belts. But you were still the most senior clerk in CT’s chambers, as well as the most senior clerk at the Court during October Term 2009. You’re now 36; what was it like being an older clerk? Did you feel like Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School?

Papez: Now that you mention it, there may have been moments, but it was great, and there were a few other clerks closer to my vintage so we had a good mix. I do think being out longer made me appreciate the clerkship more, because my prior work helped me understand the complexity and impact of the Court’s decisions in a way I didn’t really grasp as a younger lawyer. My work experience also made me much more aware of the differences between a lawyer’s role as an advocate and as an assistant to a judge, and I think that awareness made me a better clerk because it helped me remain mindful of the distinction that sometimes exists between great advocacy or passion for an issue and the law that governs what a court can do with it.

My age also made for an interesting personal experience. I was one of only a few clerks who had kids, so I have all the great memories of the clerkship plus pictures of the Justice helping my boys raid the candy drawer in his desk.

ATL: Coming out of your SCOTUS clerkship, and in light of your tremendous credentials and connections, you had many firms to choose from as a platform for private practice. Why did you decide to go to Winston & Strawn?

Papez: Although I think I would have had a great experience everywhere, I ultimately chose Winston based on a combination of client support and the opportunity to build my practice. I was focused on going somewhere of interest to my client contacts because at my level, and particularly coming from government, it’s important to demonstrate an ability to generate business but it’s difficult to bring large clients to new firms. Winston was one of several firms that had the client support I was looking for, and the rest boiled down to practice opportunities.

I was interested in Winston’s appellate practice because it’s young but strong, and increasingly recognized by clients and industry publications like Appellate Hot List, so I saw it as having good growth potential. It’s also integrated into the firm’s broader commercial litigation platform, which was a big selling point for me. I developed a lot of my experience and relationships on commercial litigation matters, and Winston’s model will allow me to continue doing that as a complement to appellate work.

There’s also a lot of potential synergy between my experience and Winston’s litigation platform, which has a broad footprint and strong anchor in Dan Webb’s practice but is also growing through several other great lawyers who are expanding relationships with clients whose business and litigation issues increasingly intersect with government regulation.

ATL: During your SCOTUS clerkship, even though you were working on the biggest issues of the day, you weren’t representing clients or serving as an advocate yourself. And yet you’re joining Winston as a litigation partner. Not every lawyer going into a firm from government can come in as a partner — and, perhaps due to the economic downturn, firms seem to be getting stingier about extending partnership to laterals who aren’t walking in the door with a huge book of business. How were you able to make this transition?

Papez: As I mentioned, client support was a big part of it. Although I’m coming from the government, I was fortunate to be able to develop client relationships and a fair amount of experience in private practice before serving at DOJ and the Court, and I was fortunate that firms and clients perceived my government work as enhancing that experience. I think the reason is partly a matter of timing. Right now I think many clients are seeing more intersection between business and litigation issues and government regulation. Dodd-Frank, the Health Reform bill, and recent amendments to the False Claims Act illustrate the trend, and I look forward to working in those and other areas at the firm.

ATL: Thanks for taking the time to chat. Congrats again, and best of luck in your new post!

Thomas Clerk Returns to Private Practice at Winston & Strawn [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]
Late to Court [Washingtonian]
Yale Edges Harvard in High Court Clerk Battle [Washingtonian]
Accomplished Litigator, Supreme Court Clerk and Former DOJ Deputy Assistant AG Elizabeth Papez Joins Winston & Strawn [Winston & Strawn (press release)]

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