About a month has passed since our last post about Supreme Court clerk hiring for October Term 2008 (not OT 2007, whose clerks started just this month, but the following one). We were reminded that we hadn't written about the subject in a while after we received this email:

"I heard that some dude from Calabresi just got hired on the court, then some other dude from Yale, but I can't remember who he clerked for."

Considering the frequency with which Guido-maniacs and Yalies troop off to One First Street, this is about as helpful as saying that "I heard someone with a law degree got hired to clerk for the Court."

Despite the vagueness of this information, we're sure we can get to the bottom of things -- with help from you, our loyal readers.

Please check out the latest version of our list of OT 2008 law clerks, which appears after the jump. If you have more SCOTUS clerk hiring news to add, or a correction to anything on the list, please email us (subject line: "Supreme Court clerk hiring").

We aren't expecting to get that much hiring news this time around, since the Supreme Court Term is now over, and the justices are all traipsing around Europe (or New Hampshire). But we're thinking we might hear about hires that were made some time ago but haven't hit the rumor mill yet. For example, who is the mysterious fourth Thomas clerk for OT 2008?

Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals engages in some impressive benchslappery in a dissent released today. He's not attacking the court's majority opinion, just ignoring it:

I concede that this short opinion of mine does not consider or take into account the majority opinion. So I should disclose at the outset that I have not read it.

Ouch! (We take particular pleasure in pointing out that the majority opinion is by Judge Guido Calabresi, LEWW's favorite elfin jurist.)

Click below to read more about the case, plus more from Judge Jacobs' delightfully disdainful dissent.

It's fitting that on this, the last week of the Supreme Court term, LEWW is considering a major test case. The issue: One couple has a Rhodes Scholarship, one has a SCOTUS clerkship, and one has two YLS degrees. How do we rank them?

Throw in a divorce, a famous grandparent, a couple of PhDs, a blog, three Courts of Appeals officiants, and a dash of "flava", and we've got lots of credentials to chew up and spit out.

Here are the candidates:

1. Jean Galbraith and Jeremy Tobacman

2. Damara Crawley and Kevin Chambers

3. Catherine Roach and Joshua Chafetz

Read on to see which couple will emerge with the sweaty flush of victory!

Lawyers are taking over the NYT weddings section like mold on warm cheddar! Once again, we had a tough time picking three contestant couples from the horde of JDs this week. An unusually high number of law firm partners (and a GC) tied the knot (see here, here, and here for some that didn't make the cut), and partly as a consequence, some younger associate-level couples were left out in the cold. LEWW even had to suck it up and cut one of our law school classmates from the finals!

Here are the carefully selected contestants:

1. Soogy Lee and Nathan Taft

2. Alyssa Qualls and John McCormick

3. Eve Brensike and Richard Primus

Continue reading about this week's couples, after the jump.

(And if you haven't already voted, don't forget about the April Couple of the Month race -- we'll close the poll soon.)

Last week, we exhorted candidates to step it up for the high wedding season, and this week's couples really responded. In fact, they brought the fabulosity in such a big way that LEWW has spent some anguished nights picking the three most deserving entries for this column.

Consider this: Our three featured couples are all lawyer-lawyer matings in which the least prestigious JDs are the two from Harvard! In order to narrow our list, we had to eliminate a gorgeous Harvard-Columbia offering with Skadden overtones and a robust NYU-Stanford entry with a wonderful floral bouquet.

LEWW is just sick about passing over all these shiny credentials. Now we know what a dean of admissions at a top-10 law school feels like!

Here are the amazing couples who made the initial cut:

1. Sara Galvan and Luke Bronin

2. Emily Thacher-Renshaw and Christian Pistilli

3. Rebecca Charnas and Scott Grant

Also, back by popular demand: registry links!

More on this week's couples, after the jump.

More details have emerged concerning the accident in which Judge John Walker (2d Cir.) hit a police officer with his SUV. Here's the latest news:

A federal judge in a sport utility ran into a police officer directing traffic in the rain, critically injuring the officer, authorities said Thursday. New Haven police Chief Francisco Ortiz said Senior Judge John M. Walker was "very much distraught"over the Tuesday night crash.

Officer Dan Picagli, 38, was in critical condition Thursday at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He had been wearing a black raincoat and a reflective vest when he was hit, Ortiz said.

Ortiz said Walker is cooperating, and police did not feel it was necessary to test him for drugs or alcohol.

Coincidentally, just last month the New York Law Journal published a rather long article reviewing John Walker's successful tenure as Chief Judge of the Second Circuit. Some excerpts and commentary, after the jump.

We recently passed along the rumor that Professor Kenji Yoshino, one of Yale Law School's most promising young scholars, might be leaving New Haven for one of the New York City law schools. It's no secret that Professor Yoshino vastly prefers New York to New Haven. As noted on his website, he already splits his time between the two cities. And as some of you pointed out to us after our original item, Yoshino is visiting at NYU this year.

Yoshino has certainly "done his time" in the Elm City. In addition to the time he's spent in New Haven as a YLS faculty member, Yoshino was there for law school, as well as his clerkship with Second Circuit judge (and former YLS dean) Guido Calabresi.

But Yale may not let Yoshino go without a fight. Several of you wrote to us about this; here's one account:

During Alumni Weekend here at YLS, the "Guido Calabresi Chair" was established -- and granted to Kenji Yoshino. I did not witness it firsthand, but it appears Guido was unaware, and the occasion was quite emotional....

Certainly looks like an attempt to retain one of the school's star profs. Might be somewhat awkward now if he leaves for another job next fall.

Yes indeed -- terribly awkward. Professor Yoshino and Judge Calabresi are quite close; "Guido," as he's known around Yale, has been a mentor to Yoshino over the years. In fact, Guido played an important role in helping Yoshino secure a junior faculty appointment at Yale (which rarely hires junior faculty).

So the Guido Calabresi professorship, in addition to giving Yoshino the greater prestige (and money) of a named chair, also carries sentimental value for him. And it might look like a slap in the face of his longtime mentor for Yoshino to vacate the Guido Calabresi chair after barely warming it.

We hope you like pizza, Kenji -- 'cause you may be looking at a few more face-saving years in lovely New Haven.

Dean Koh Announces New Faculty Chairs [Yale Law School]
Kenji Yoshino bio [KenjiYoshino.com]
Faculty Profiles: Visiting Faculty 2006-2007 [NYU Law]

Earlier: Musical Chairs: What, the Pizza's Not Good Enough to Make Them Stay?