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Clerkships

Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Justices Stevens, Scalia, and Ginsburg Are Done (for OT 2009)

Supreme Court hallway Above the Law Above the Law Above the Law.JPGWhat's going on at the Supreme Court? Last weekend, after handing down the last opinions of October Term 2007, two of the justices had law clerk reunions at One First Street.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hosted a tea for her clerks on Sunday afternoon. Perfectly lovely and civilized, and just what one would expect from a justice with a white frilly thing sprouting from her neck.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has his clerk reunion every five years. There was a black-tie dinner at the Court on Saturday night, followed by a kid- and family-friendly lunch on Sunday. Turnout was strong, and the attendees included several former AMK clerks who are now judges: Chief Judge Alex Kozinski (9th Cir.; awkward?), Judge Brett Kavanaugh (D.C. Cir.), Judge Neil Gorsuch (10th Cir.), and the just-confirmed Raymond Kethledge (6th Cir.). We may have a more detailed report on the AMK reunion later.

And speaking of Supreme Court clerks, we have lots of hiring news to pass along. We were hoping to wait a bit longer to tie up some loose ends (of which there are a number). But since some of this news has been showing up elsewhere -- e.g., the Volokh Conspiracy (Orin Kerr); Wikipedia -- we've been forced to show our hand.

As noted over at the Clerkship Notification Blog, Justice John Paul Stevens and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg have completed their law clerk hiring for October Term 2009. In addition, we've independently confirmed that Justice Antonin Scalia is also all finished for OT 2009. If you were hoping to land a clerkship with JPS, RBG, or AS -- who, by the way, are frequently mentioned by ex-SCOTUS clerks (of all ideological stripes) when you ask them who the smartest of the nine justices are -- sorry, but the courthouse doors are closed. Try again next year.

Check out the list of Supreme Court clerks for OT 2009 -- which contains some information gaps, which we're hoping you can help us fill -- after the jump.

Continue reading "Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Justices Stevens, Scalia, and Ginsburg Are Done (for OT 2009)"

Chief Judge Kozinski and the Ira Isaacs Trial: Lots of Links, Plus a Pair of Polls

Alex Kozinski small Alex S Kozinski Judge Above the Law hot hottie superhottie federal judiciary.JPGToo... much.... information. Yes, we're talking about the controversy over Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit, who's presiding over the Ira Isaacs obscenity trial in Los Angeles, and who uploaded some materials to a shared family website that contained some sexual images (among many other things).

This controversy is "TMI" in more ways than one. There has been such a torrent of news and legal blog coverage that we're still getting up to speed. We'll have more detailed thoughts later. Our extensive past coverage appears here, here, and here.

In the meantime, here's an open thread for discussion, plus some material to keep you occupied: (1) an extensive collection of links related to this matter, to both mainstream media sources and blogs, as well as selected material obtained from Chief Judge Kozinski's site; and (2) a pair of reader polls (one from yesterday, still open, and one new, prompted by comments like this one).

NEWS COVERAGE
Judge suspends L.A. obscenity trial after conceding his website had sexual images [Los Angeles Times]
Porn Stash Puts Obscenity Case Judge in Awkward Spot [New York Sun]
Chief Judge Contributed to Racy Web Site [New York Times]
Report: Smut-case judge posted explicit images [AP]
Judge Assailed Over Sexually Explicit Images on Web Site [Washington Post]
Obscenity Trial Suspended After Report That Judge Posted Sexual Images [WSJ Law Blog]

BLOGOSPHERE COVERAGE
The L.A. Times's Tipster on Kozinski's Porn: Cyrus Sanai [Patterico's Pontifications]
More on Cyrus Sanai's Campaign Against Judge Kozinski [Patterico's Pontifications]
The L.A. Times's Tipster [How Appealing (Howard Bashman)]
The Kozinski Circus [Convictions / Slate (Emily Bazelon)]
Should Litigants in Obscenity Case Before Judge Kozinski Moo-ve for a Mistrial? [Legal Blog Watch (Carolyn Elefant)]
Judges Gone Wild [Concurring Opinions (Kaimipono Wanger)]
News judgments about Kozinski's porn [LawBeat (Mark Obbie) via How Appealing]

COLLECTED MATERIALS FROM CHIEF JUDGE KOZINSKI'S WEBSITE
[Warning: NSFW]
What "Stuff" was on Judge Kozinski's Personal Website? [Celebrity Justice / USLaw.com]
Exclusive: Kozinski's Porn -- Images from Judge Alex Kozinski's Web Site [Patterico's Pontifications]
[Warning: NSFW]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski (scroll down)

Featured Job Survey: Payback's a b-tch!

While we continue to update our ATL / Lateral Link tables on clerkship bonuses and signing bonuses and bar exam fees, a few of the clerks I have been working with lately have asked an interesting, but often critical question: "Do I have to give it back if I leave?"

Stay tuned for results next week, and, as always, please feel free to send us tips.

In the meantime, a quick shout-out to two firms making nice strides lately: Hogan & Hartson now offers a $50K clerkship bonus in all of their offices, and Fried Frank has increased their paid maternity leave to 18 weeks.

Both of our running tables have now been updated to reflect the good news.

Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: All Done for OT 2008

Supreme Court hallway Above the Law Above the Law Above the Law.JPGHere are a few items about U.S. Supreme Court clerk hiring:

1. The justices have completed their hiring for October Term 2008. They're all done (including retired Justice O'Connor). If you were hoping to land a SCOTUS clerkship for OT 2008 and haven't heard anything, our condolences -- that ship has sailed.

2. Here are two hires not previously reported in these pages:

(a) Clerking for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. (Term not determined): Jaynie Randall (Yale 2006 / M. Patel (N.D. Cal.) / Cabranes).

(b) Clerking for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy (for October Term 2009): Scott Keller (University of Texas 2007 / Kozinski).

We don't know whether Randall will be clerking for Justice Alito in OT 2008 or OT 2009. We have reason to believe that she's an OT 2009 clerk. But that would leave two unknown spots for OT 2008 in SAA's chambers, which strikes us as strange. So we are listing her as OT 2008 for the time being, until the mysteriously missing Alito clerks are identified.

(On that subject, if the outstanding Alito clerks for OT 2008 are deliberately trying to conceal their identities from the world -- perhaps thinking their fellow clerks are fit to be listed on ATL and Wikipedia, but they are somehow too "special" to be revealed -- that strikes us as rather precious and self-important. Also, their names will appear on the Court's official list of law clerks in a few weeks, making the cloak-and-dagger secrecy even more unwarranted.)

Keller, a current clerk for Judge Kozinski, will do a Bristow Fellowship in between his Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court clerkships. To the ATL readers who asked about whether Bristow Fellows had been announced, there's your answer.

3. The Clerkship Notification Blog, a tremendously helpful resource for those in the clerkship hunt, is up and running for the 2009-10 clerkship season. The main page is accessible here, and the SCOTUS clerk section is accessible here.

4. Finally, we'd like to pose the same question to you about SCOTUS clerk demographics that we posed last year:

We're interested in figuring out how many law clerks for the upcoming Supreme Court Term are women or minorities. But we don't know all these folks personally (much as we might like to). So we need your help.

If you know of either (1) a clerk who is a racial or ethnic minority or (2) a clerk whose gender is not revealed by their name (we already know that incoming AMK clerk Ashley Keller is a guy), please let us know, preferably by email (subject line: "SCOTUS clerk demographics"). Thanks.

(Some of you might find this inquiry crass. But racial and gender diversity among Supreme Court law clerks has been discussed on Capitol Hill and in the pages of the New York Times and the Legal Times. So please don't get upset at us for being curious about something that members of Congress and the mainstream media are already interested in.)

The latest lists of the OT 2008 and OT 2009 law clerks to the U.S. Supreme Court, with Randall and Keller added, appear after the jump.

Continue reading "Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: All Done for OT 2008"

Clerkship Bonus Watch: Jones Day to $50K

Jones Day Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgWe probably won't cover judicial clerkship bonuses quite as closely as we used to, now that Justin Bernold has put together this handy table of clerkship bonus info. But we did want to bring your attention to one development, since several of you emailed us about it. This message is representative:

Just to let you know, JD has just changed their website to reflect a $50K clerkship bonus. Despite all the bad things said about JD on ATL, they are at least keeping pace with clerkship bonuses. Hope this spurs some positive commentary....

Thanks for providing a great service to lawyers everywhere!

For ATL's table of clerkship bonuses, which has been corrected to reflect the JD information, click here.

P.S. For the record, we don't think the Jones Day buzz here has been that bad. Sure, there have been some negative comments, but that's true of almost every firm under the sun. And we've heard from Jones Day defenders as well.

Jones Day - Careers - Compensation [Jones Day]

Featured Job Survey: Clerkship Bonuses

law clerk judicial clerkship Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgWe received about 400 responses to last week's ATL / Lateral Link survey on judicial clerk hiring. Roughly 140 of these responses were from current judicial clerks.

Although comments in last week's post suggest a weakening market for judicial clerk hiring, the actual survey results were mixed. A couple dozen respondents claimed that their firms were not hiring judicial clerks, but there were other respondents at almost all of these firms who said that they were hiring clerks, as well as responses from clerks stating that they had received offers from these firms. (And, in at least three cases, I've personally worked with clerks who received offers at the supposedly non-hiring firms.) But it does seem clear that firms are more likely to hire clerks in their larger offices, especially New York, than in smaller branches.

That said, the clerks seem to be doing pretty well overall. A quarter of responding clerks have already accepted offers for post-clerkship employment, and another fifth have received offers but haven't yet decided where to go. Fifteen percent have started interviewing. A quarter have not yet started looking. Only about sixteen percent have started looking, but haven't yet landed interviews.

Interestingly, 56% of the clerks who have accepted offers are going to firms that they did not work for before clerking. Almost 90% will receive clerkship bonuses, with more than half receiving $50,000.

Check out our table of clerkship bonuses, after the jump.

Continue reading "Featured Job Survey: Clerkship Bonuses"

Featured Job Survey: Hiring Clerks?

There have been some rumblings on this blog of a slowdown in judicial clerk hiring, even as firms raise clerkship bonuses to $50K.

Today's ATL / Lateral Link survey digs a little deeper into who is (or isn't) hiring judicial clerks, and what their bonuses look like.

Clerkship Bonus Watch: Gibson Dunn

Gibson Dunn Crutcher LLP GDC gdclaw Above the Law blog.JPGWe have confirmed, with a reliable source at the firm, the rumor that Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher now pays a $50,000 clerkship bonus, as of January 1 of this year. We don't know the firm's policy for multiple clerkships of years of clerking; if you happen to know, email us, and we'll update this post with the information once it's confirmed.

Over the weekend, there was some discussion about a possible slowdown in terms of law firms hiring law clerks. Could sizable clerkship bonuses be contributing to this, by making law clerks more expensive for firms to hire?

Update: Two pieces of additional information. First, the $50,000 bonus is "flat"; it does not increase for multiple clerkships or years of clerking. Second:

I love Gibson Dunn, but don't be fooled. They just eliminated the bar stipend amount ($15,000), and then tell you that you are getting a $50,000 bonus for clerking. You can get $15,000 in the summer before you start your clerkship (like all of the other new associates) to help pay for the bar, but then your bonus really is only $35,000. So, they didn't really up their bonus, they just called your bar stipend something different.

Clerks in Paradise? Maybe Not When It Comes To Hiring

Palau American Samoa Above the Law blog.jpgSome people clerk for the experience. And some people clerk for the experience. From an interesting article entitled "Clerks in Paradise," which appeared in last month's American Lawyer:

[Some go clerk for feeder judges, and some go clerk for] courts in the Northern Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and other tropical locales in the Pacific Ocean. These former United Nations trust territories have legal systems similar to those of the United States, and appeals from their courts traditionally lie with U.S. courts. Many of these territories invite American law graduates to spend a year or two working in their courts as clerks and counsel.

The pull of the Pacific can be powerful.

When Timothy Schimpf accepted a position as court counsel in Palau, a nation of more than 300 islands that became independent in 1994, he turned down a permanent job as a trademark attorney with the federal government. "It's absolutely worth it to take a chance and go do something outlandish," he says.

The $40,000 salary he earned in Palau wouldn't go far in America, but life in the Pacific Islands had its perks. From Schimpf's government-provided beachfront housing, after-work swims and kayak sessions were easy.

Sounds like a pretty sweet gig. Read more -- about clerking in paradise, and about the current job market for law clerks applying to large law firms -- after the jump.

Continue reading "Clerks in Paradise? Maybe Not When It Comes To Hiring"

Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Justice Breyer's Final Hire
(And a Digression on Judges Katzmann and Rakoff)

Brianne Gorod Justice Stephen Breyer Above the Law blog.jpgWe bring you an addendum to Monday's post about the latest in Supreme Court clerk hiring. And we're pleasantly surprised to see that we have this news before Wikipedia.

Recently hired to clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer in October Term 2008: Brianne Gorod, currently in the D.C. office of O'Melveny & Myers. Gorod is a 2005 Yale Law grad and a former clerk to the judicial tag team of Jed S. Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) and Robert A. Katzmann (2d Cir.).

Those who obsessively follows SCOTUS clerk hiring know that Judges Rakoff and Katzmann have jointly sent clerks to the Court before. But contrary to some rumors, they're not always a "package deal" when it comes to hiring (although there is a significant degree of overlap among their current and former clerks).

Judge Katzmann prefers to hire individuals who have clerked on the district court (or have some other kind of post-law school work experience), so he regularly turns to Judge Rakoff, for whom he has a great deal of respect, as a source of clerkly talent. Judge Katzmann sometimes also helps promising applicants to his own chambers to secure interviews with Judge Rakoff. Conversely, Judge Rakoff also refers and sends clerks to Judge Katzmann, as well as to other Second Circuit judges, and he has also hired some clerks after Second Circuit clerkships. In short, both judges think it's valuable for people to have both district and circuit clerkship experiences, and they try to help make that happen for their clerks. But they don't hire 100 percent of their clerks jointly.

The current tally of OT 2008 SCOTUS clerks, with Brianne Gorod added, appears after the jump.

Continue reading "Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Justice Breyer's Final Hire(And a Digression on Judges Katzmann and Rakoff)"

Law Clerk Recruiting: Open Thread

law clerk judicial clerkship Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgThe topic for today's open thread: law firm recruiting of law clerks. From an exchange last week in the comments:

"The law firm clerkship recruiting season is picking up, with a lot of clerks' cocktail parties scheduled in the next few weeks in NY. How about an open thread for clerks to discuss firms?"

"[H]ow about a thread with a list of shame for firms, big and small, that haven't stepped up and offered clerkship bonuses to make up for the salary hit you take to clerk for a year?"

"Don’t be upset because you realize your clerkship experience is devoid of any value, as evidenced by the nominal clerkship bonuses. You would have been better off working for a large firm straight out of law school, but I understand that mediocre people need all the experience they can get before applying to a prestigious job, much like my own. P.S.: I didn’t apply to any clerkships because I knew (unlike yourself) that I would never recoup the time invested. I am sorry you wasted your time on a clerkship, but don’t be upset simply because firms place little-to-no value on your clerkship experience (and I use the term "experience" loosely)."

So here's an open thread on Biglaw law clerk hiring. In the comments, feel free to trade notes on which law firms are especially welcoming of clerks, who's leading (and lagging) on the clerkship bonus front, and whether the clerkship experience is worth it -- which we expect to bring out the usual trash talking, from both the pro- and anti-clerking camps. Thanks.

Where Do Broken Hearts Go?

supreme court small with heart above the law atl.JPGTo San Francisco, apparently, to clerk on the Ninth Circuit.

We hope that the author of this email is clerking for one of court's slave-driver judges. He needs to be kept busy, so he won't have time for any more literary endeavors.

"Pleaded" or "pled" may be a matter of personal preference. But turns of phrase like "I had to have breakfast with my unit" and "the inadequate salve of an orgasm" ought to be criminalized -- even in the Ninth Circuit.

Correction: We've heard from the woman who received the email. As it turns out, she works for the Ninth Circuit; the sender does not (although he is an attorney, in southern California). She construes the references to the Ninth Circuit to mean "that the job he currently has is *his version* of the Ninth Circuit -- that is, his dream job."

"It Was A Risk -- Dating You. Risking My Reputation. Where Was Respect For That?" [Jezebel]

Clerkship Bonus Watch: Williams & Connolly to $45K / $90K

100 dollar bill Above the Law Above the Law law firm salary legal blog legal tabloid Above the Law.JPGNot too long ago, we reported the move of Williams & Connolly to a pay scale with a starting salary of $180,000. Today we bring you more happy compensation news from W&C.

First, the firm just raised its clerkship bonus from $35,000 to $45,000. This is a welcome development, although not super-exciting; $45K is slightly below the $50K that is the market clerkship bonus, at least for the top firms.

The second piece of news is more interesting. If you have two clerkships under your belt -- e.g., a federal district court clerkship and a federal circuit court clerkship -- Williams & Connolly may be the place to be (assuming you're interested in working on sexy, high-profile litigation matters). For people with two clerkships, the firm pays a total clerkship bonus of $90,000.

Most of the firms that pay a $50,000 bonus for one clerkship pay a $70,000 clerkship bonus for two clerkships and/or two years of clerking experience. So $90,000 would appear to be a new high in terms of clerkship bonuses.

Sorry, we don't know the fine print on this offer (e.g., whether two years of clerking for the same judge will get you the $90K, what clerkships will qualify towards the two-clerkship bonus, etc.). But if you're in the small class of people who might be affected by this, and if you secure an offer from Williams & Connolly, you may wish to make a polite inquiry into the precise contours of the policy.

Earlier: Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: Williams & Connolly to $180K

Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch (OT 2008): Another Justice Finishes Up

Supreme Court hallway Above the Law Above the Law Above the Law.JPGAlmost half of the justices are done hiring their law clerks for October Term 2008. The latest justice to finish up: Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

In addition to Chris Walker (Stanford 2006 / Kozinski), whose hiring has been previously noted in these pages, congratulations to the three newest AMK clerks:

1. Ashley Keller (University of Chicago 2007 / Posner)
2. Travis Lenkner (Kansas 2005 / Kavanaugh)
3. Steven Shepard (Yale 2007 / Kozinski)

It's unusual to have two clerks from the same feeder judge in the same justice's chambers. But if there's any combination that's likely to produce such a development, it's Kozinski --> Kennedy (just as Luttig would sometimes send two clerks to Justice Scalia in the same Term; also note Judge Garland filling three out of Justice Stevens's four slots in OT 2008).

Ashley Keller appears to be the first Chicago clerk in OT 2008. Also note the (unsurprising) emergence of the well-connected Judge Brett Kavanaugh (D.C. Cir.), relatively new to the federal bench, as a feeder judge extraordinaire.

The current tally of OT 2008 SCOTUS clerks, with the three new Kennedy clerks added, appears after the jump.

Continue reading "Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch (OT 2008): Another Justice Finishes Up"

Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: OT 2008 (Update #7)

aileen mcgrath aileen marie mcgrath jason gillenwater jason e gillenwater.jpgIn October 2006, when LEWW reviewed her wedding, we wrote of Aileen McGrath (at right, with handsome hubby Jason Gillenwater):

Aileen is the President of the Harvard Law Review. HELLO!!! And this isn't mentioned in the announcement, but we've learned that she'll be clerking next year for Chief Judge Michael Boudin, of the First Circuit -- feeder judge extraordinaire.

So, Aileen, have you picked which Supreme Court justice you'd like to clerk for?

She has. We've learned that Aileen McGrath (Harvard 2007 / Boudin) has accepted an offer to clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer in October Term 2008. One source tells us: "[S]he’s universally recognized as brilliant. She was president of the law review and a Sears Prize winner."

We also hear that the fourth clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas for OT 2008 is a D.C. Circuit clerk (believed to be clerking for Judge David Sentelle). Will someone please give up the name?

Update: Her name is Claire Evans. She's a 2002 graduate of Rutgers School of Law - Camden, and she's the first alum of the school to score a SCOTUS clerkship. She clerked for Judge Jerome Simandle (D.N.J.) in 2003, and then for Michael Chertoff, back when he was still on the Third Circuit. Reports our source:

"Chertoff liked Claire so much that he took her to the Department of Homeland Security when he left the bench for Washington. Apparently, Claire continues to amaze and has now secured the most coveted of credentials -- a U.S. Supreme Court clerkship."

"[S]he holds the highest cumulative grade point average in the history of Rutgers School of Law - Camden. And, because of a grading change implemented the year after Claire graduated, it is now mathematically impossible for Claire's epic GPA to ever be topped."

Finally, expect more SCOTUS clerk hires in the near future. From an in-the-know tipster:

There's movement among the justices now. At least Alito, Roberts, Kennedy & Breyer have scheduled interviews in the last few days. Kennedy has scheduled pre-screen interviews, at least some of which are with Judge Kozinski.

The current tally of OT 2008 Supreme Court clerks, with Aileen McGrath and Claire Evans added, appears after the jump.

Continue reading "Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: OT 2008 (Update #7)"

A Very Exciting Clerkship Opportunity

law clerk judicial clerkship Abovethelaw Above the Law blog.jpgFederal judicial clerkships are coveted positions -- and for good reason. They burnish your resume, enhance your connections, and give you a view of litigation from the other side of the bench.

So we'd like to bring you news of a very special clerkship position. Please keep in mind, however, that it's not for everyone. The ideal candidate will have no student loans and no kids to support. A trust fund and/or a well-to-do family are helpful.

An ATL tipster was recently offered this clerkship position:

Dear [redacted]:

Although Judge [redacted] has hired a clerk for his 2008-09 funded position, he still has an opening for his unfunded position. The unfunded position carries all of the responsibilities, prestige, and future opportunities of the funded position; the only difference is the salary.

Please let me know if you are interested in being considered for this position or if you would like more information about this position.

Thank you,
[redacted]
United States District Court, [redacted] District of Texas

Pretty insane, right? We expect many offerees tell the judge to take his clerkship and shove it.

But on the other hand, if you can afford to live without a salary for a year, it might not be a bad gig. You can get all the prestige and experience of a clerkship with a federal judge -- then make it up on the back end, by going to a law firm that pays a $50,000 clerkship bonus (roughly equal to or even more than what you would have earned in a year of clerking anyway, assuming you go straight into the clerkship from law school).

Clerkship Bonus Watch: Year-End Bonuses for Clerks Who Left Biglaw?

associate bonus watch 2007 law firm Above the Law blog.jpgJudicial clerkships. Year-end bonuses. Two great tastes that go great together.

We received some inquiries about whether clerks who leave law firms to go off and clerk might receive some kind of partial or prorated year-end bonus. It struck us as a rather obscure topic, of interest to only a small group of people.

But then the subject came up repeatedly in the comments to yesterday's Debevoise bonus news. A reader pointed out that "with the end of salary match, this could be a question that could somewhat influence the choices of potential experienced clerks."

So we've decided to write about it. From a tipster:

I am a federal clerk and my co-clerk, who worked at Kirkland & Ellis in NY for a year prior to his clerkship, was recently told that he will be paid the bonus he would have received had he not left to clerk. In other words, he will receive the pro-rated amount from Jan. 2007 to Sep. 2007 (8 months worth of 35K) even though he no longer works at K&E. This payment is NOT contingent on him returning to the firm after his clerkship.

This strikes us as highly unusual -- and quite generous on Kirkland's part. We don't know about the mechanics or the exact timing of this payment, but we'd suggest to the lucky clerk that he talk to his judge to make sure this doesn't raise any issues.

A little more, after the jump.

Continue reading "Clerkship Bonus Watch: Year-End Bonuses for Clerks Who Left Biglaw?"

Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: OT 2008 (Update #6)

Supreme Court hallway Above the Law Above the Law Above the Law.JPGPeople, you've been holding out on us. We've been hearing rumors about more Supreme Court law clerk hiring taking place for the next Term (October Term 2008).

For example, there's gossip going around that Justice Samuel Alito has hired a clerk from Judge Harris Hartz (10th Cir.). We've also heard a rumor to the effect that Justice Thomas's mysterious fourth spot for OT 2008 has been filled -- mysterious, because he's already hired at least one clerk for OT 2009 (Marah Stith; see here).

But nobody has let us in on what's been going on. That's just plain wrong.

A list of the OT 2008 clerks that we know of appears after the jump. Are you aware of an OT 2008 clerk who isn't on the list? If so, please contact us, by email (subject line: "Supreme Court clerk hiring").

(You can also post a comment, but we prefer email for this subject, for verification and possible follow-up. Thanks!)

Update: We've been told, from a reliable source, that the rumor that Justice Alito has hired a clerk from Judge Hartz is not correct. As far as we know, Justice Alito has hired only two clerks for OT 2008: Dana Irwin (Yale 2002 / Scirica) and Jack White (Pepperdine 2003 / Alito).

Continue reading "Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: OT 2008 (Update #6)"

Freshly Baked Crack for the Clerkship Addicts Among You

Alex Kozinski Alex S Kozinski Judge Above the Law hot hottie superhottie federal judiciary.jpgFor the limited but passionate segment of the ATL readership that avidly follows the federal judiciary and clerkship news, the past week has been a good one.

First, there was this very interesting Legal Times article by Joe Palazzolo, about the debacle known as the law clerk hiring process. Executive summary: "As in most family feuds, it's the kids who suffer most. In interviews, newly hired law clerks rated this year's hiring frenzy on a scale from 'unfortunate' to 'an utter mess.'"

At the D.C. Circuit, lights shone in the windows of some judges' chambers before dawn on Sept. 19. They had scheduled their first interviews between 6:45 and 7 a.m.

[Yale Law School Professor Christine] Jolls, who is a member of a committee of professors and deans that advises the Judicial Conference on the hiring process, says she got a 2 a.m. e-mail from one of her students who had just emerged from an interview with a 2nd Circuit judge. The judge had scheduled the interview for Sept. 19 at 12:01 a.m.

If you know, feel free to identify the judges who scheduled these insanely early interviews, in the comments.

Second, for those of you follow clerkship bonus developments, on Tuesday the ever-helpful Law Clerk Addict posted an updated Vault 100 clerkship bonus chart. You can access it here.

Third, today the National Law Journal serves up a delightful profile of the nation's #1 judicial superhottie (male), Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit. As of December 1, make that CHIEF Judge Kozinski. Congratulations, Your Honor!

Links to the aforementioned sources, plus excerpts and commentary on the Kozinski profile, appear after the jump.

Update: Also after the jump, some scuttlebutt about which judges were conducting the midnight and early morning interviews.

Continue reading "Freshly Baked Crack for the Clerkship Addicts Among You"

Clerkship Bonus Watch: Shearman & Sterling Joins the $50K/$70K Club

Shearman & Sterling logo Above the Law blog.jpgSometimes it takes a while. But we usually get results, eventually.

Back in July, we published a post entitled Clerkship Bonus Watch: What's Up With Shearman? Today, at 12:32 p.m., this email went around at Shearman & Sterling:

At the last meeting of the Associates Committee in New York, the committee representatives noted that we had fallen behind some other firms who had adjusted clerkship bonuses in 2007. As we mentioned at the meeting, we assumed that the firm would promptly respond with a clerkship policy consistent with the market.

Accordingly, I am pleased to report that because the firm places great value on the experience a clerkship provides, it has raised bonuses to $50,000, paid to associates who join the firm after August 1, 2007 and who complete a one-year eligible clerkship. For two one-year clerkships or two-years of clerkship experience, the firm will pay $70,000. An additional bonus is paid to U.S. Supreme Court clerks.

For details, please refer to the firm's website.

This is the first clerkship bonus news in a while (since Dechert). Have we missed any developments? If you know of clerkship bonus news that we haven't previously covered -- use the site search function or the archives to check -- please email us. Thanks.

Earlier: Clerkship Bonus Watch: What's Up With Shearman?