Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: New Year, New Hires

We have many new hires to report -- including one young lawyer who has previously graced our pages.

We recently wrote about a Supreme Court clerk who went on to become a stay-at-home dad — for a few months after clerking and before joining Boies Schiller (and presumably collecting a giant signing bonus). The story generated lots of traffic and buzz, which reminded us: people like to read about SCOTUS clerks,[1] and it has been more than four months since our last SCOTUS clerk hiring update. So let’s get to it.

We’ve added the new names to our list below. Some assorted observations:

1. The biggest celebrity in the bunch is Elana Nightingale Dawson, who has appeared in our pages so many times that we’ve created tags for posts about her. The Northwestern press release mentions her glittering résumé — clerkships for feeder judges Raymond Kethledge (6th Cir.) and Gary Feinerman (N.D. Ill.), the coveted Bristow Fellowship — but not the real reason for her fame: how she went into active labor during the bar exam, delivered a healthy baby boy a few hours later, and passed the Illinois bar despite the distraction.

(A tipster adds this about Dawson: “In addition to being interesting for reasons you’ve already covered, she’s interesting because she’s one of very few graduates of Northwestern’s two-year J.D. program to have clerked anywhere, let alone on the Court. And she’s awesome.”)

2. Being the editor-in-chief of a top law review will take you far. Rachel Miller-Ziegler, who will be clerking for Chief Justice Roberts in October Term 2016, currently reigns as queen of the Harvard Law Review. Aaron Pennekamp, a 2013 Georgetown Law grad, served as editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Law Journal.

3. When people ask me for my views on future Supreme Court nominees, I often mention Judge Paul Watford of the Ninth Circuit. He’s young, brilliant, handsome, African-American, and a former SCOTUS clerk himself (Ginsburg / OT 1995). That last fact is why I’ve expected him to emerge as a feeder judge — and my prediction is starting to come true, with his placement of Easha Anand in the chambers of Justice Sotomayor.

4. In news of other things that I was right about… in my last hiring update, I mentioned an unnamed UVA Law grad who clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson and got picked up by Justice Kennedy. Congratulations to Andrew Kilberg, and congratulations to UVA. Kilberg is “the fourth UVA Law graduate named to clerk at the Supreme Court next term, which ties a school record from the 2009-10 term.”

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Here’s the latest list. As always, if you have additions or corrections, please email us (subject line: “SCOTUS clerk hiring”) or text us (646-820-8477). Thanks!

[1] If you enjoy reading about the quest for Supreme Court clerkships — and presumably you do, since you’re reading the footnote to a story about the subject — then consider checking out my new novel, Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link). According to the New York Times, “for an elite niche — consisting largely of federal judges and their clerks — Supreme Ambitions has become the most buzzed-about novel of the year.”

OCTOBER TERM 2015 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of January 13, 2015)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts
1. Jake Brege (Michigan 2012 / Sentelle / Boasberg (D.D.C.))
2. Daniel Feith (Yale 2012 / Sullivan (S.D.N.Y.) / Griffith)
3. Ben Tyson (UVA 2014 / Srinivasan)
4. Katherine Booth Wellington (Harvard 2013 / Kavanaugh)

(Marguerite Colson (Yale 2015 / Kavanaugh) and Rachel Miller-Ziegler (Harvard 2015 / Garland) have been hired for October Term 2016.)

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Justice Antonin Scalia
1. Sopan Joshi (Northwestern 2013 / Posner/ Feinerman (N.D. Ill.))
2. Michael Kenneally (Harvard 2011 / Gorsuch)
3. Taylor Meehan (Chicago 2013 / W. Pryor)[1]
4. Jonathan Urick (UVA 2013 / Sutton / Thapar (E.D. Ky.))

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
1. Elana Nightingale Dawson (Northwestern 2011 / Feinerman (N.D. Ill.) / Kethledge / Bristow)
2. Andrew Kilberg (UVA 2014 / Wilkinson)
3. C. Harker Rhodes IV (Stanford 2012 / Zobel (D. Mass.) / Katzmann)
4. ?

Justice Clarence Thomas
1. Marisa Maleck (Chicago 2011 / W. Pryor)
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1. Z. Payvand Ahdout (Columbia 2013 / Livingston / Bristow)
2. Josh Bone (Yale 2013 / Tatel)
3. Sam Harbourt (Harvard 2013 / Garland / Bristow)
4. Amy Marshak (NYU 2011 / Rakoff / Katzmann)

Justice Stephen G. Breyer
1. Galen Bascom (UVA 2013 / Garland / Bristow)
2. Tejas Narechania (Columbia 2011 / D. Wood)
3. Aaron Pennekamp (Georgetown 2013 / Sutton / Bates (D.D.C.))
4. Farah Peterson (Yale 2012 / Calabresi)

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

Justice Sonia Sotomayor
1. Easha Anand (Berkeley 2014 / Watford)
2. Nikolas Bowie (Harvard 2014 / Sutton)
3. Bridget Fahey (Yale 2014 / Kavanaugh)
4. Matt Shahabian (NYU 2011 / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) / Katzmann)

Justice Elena Kagan
1. Yaira Dubin (Harvard 2013 / Srinivasan / Boasberg (D.D.C.))
2. Jeremy Feigenbaum (Harvard 2014 / Fletcher)
3. Thomas Fu (Stanford 2014 / Garland)
4. Jonathan Meltzer (Yale 2013 / Wilkinson / Bristow)

(Ben Eidelson (Yale 2014 / Garland) has been hired for October Term 2016.)

Justice John Paul Stevens (retired)
1. Gillian Grossman (Harvard 2014 / Kavanaugh)

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (retired):
1. Sarah Boyce (Duke 2012 / Sutton / Bristow)

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

Do you know about a hire we haven’t reported yet, or have an addition or correction to any of this info? Please email us (subject line: “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring”) or text us (646-820-8477). Thanks!

Earlier: What Drove This Supreme Court Clerk To Become A Stay-At-Home Dad?
Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Into 2016 We Go — Plus SCOTUS Clerk Bonus News
Prior ATL coverage of Supreme Court law clerks