We'll bottom-line this week's contest, folks: The SCOTUS clerk wins. Yep, after a long absence, LEWW's favorite credential makes a welcome appearance in the NYT weddings section, and we've got the details for you.

But first, congratulations to Sabrina Charles and Jamie Dycus, who readers overwhelmingly voted Legal Eagle Couple of the Month for May, demonstrating that -- in the words of one commenter (and apparently, in the minds of ATL readers) -- "Wachtell > Sotomayor > Olympic medal."

Here are our finalists:

1. Kathryn Whitfield and Adam Fotiades

2. Christina Krause and Peter Henderson

3. Pamela Bookman and Jeffrey Perlman

More about these couples, after the jump.

The National Law Journal suggests that the down economy could be hitting the pockets of the Elect. Some firms are suggesting that the $250,000 bonus to hire a former Supreme Court clerk is just too expensive in today's economy:

At firms that have been shaken by the downturn, however, a $250,000 bonus will be hard to sell, some practitioners say. "Intuitively, it doesn't feel right to pay that kind of bonus when you are trying to make economies wherever you can at the firm," said veteran advocate Carter Phillips, managing partner at Sidley Austin's Washington office. Thomas Goldstein of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, where there have been cuts, agrees that it's tough to justify a $250,000 bonus when a firm is considering letting go a staff person paid $50,000. Because of that juxtaposition, he predicted bonuses will shrink -- though he said it's too early in the hiring season to say how much. "The number of firms willing to pay that amount of money will be down."

But surely these firms aren't talking about collusion, are they? SCOTUS clerks command top dollar, and firms that are struggling can't artificially deflate the price for this top talent -- even if they want to:

Firms won't be sorry to wave goodbye to what Goldstein calls the "incredible escalation" that the $250,000 bonus represents. Even before the recession, firms were grumbling about it because of a recurring pattern: Some clerks grab the bonus, work at the firm for a year or three, then skip off to academia with loans paid off and kids' tuition in the bank. "Firms are going to be more interested in clerks staying around and practicing law," [former solicitor general Paul] Clement said.

While some firms might be priced out of the Elect market, we are still talking about a "recession-proof" set of credentials.

More after the jump.

Your ATL editors kicked off the Memorial Day weekend with a trip to the East 13th Street Theater in Manhattan, where we saw A More Perfect Union, presented by the Epic Theater Ensemble. The play, by Canadian playwright Vern Thiessen, is about two members of The Elect -- i.e., two Supreme Court clerks, who fall in love while clerking at the U.S. Supreme Court. Maddie, a white Jewish woman from Ohio, clerks for a fictional conservative justice called "The Wise One"; James, an African-American man from Georgia, clerks for a fictional liberal justice called "The Enlightened One."

Like the night we spent reviewing Law Revue videos, there were highlights and low points. A big highlight was a post-play discussion featuring former New York Times Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse. As you know, we are what some might call Greenhouse groupies, though she was not as excited to talk to us as we were to talk to her. We just got a little handshake, a "nice to see you," and an introduction to her daughter.

The post-show discussion also included professors Elizabeth Emens and Susan Sturm, both of Columbia Law School. Professor Sturm mentioned being a law school classmate of SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor, whom she described as "a straightforward person, who doesn't hide from her background or make decisions based on it." She also defended Judge Sotomayor's Berkeley remarks about personal experience informing a judge's jurisprudence, noting that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg basically said as much in discussing the recent strip search case before the Court (noting that her colleagues, who seemed less sensitive to the plaintiff's plight, "have never been a 13-year-old girl").

Obviously, we think the legal world is an exciting place, and we are always thrilled to see the courts get dramatic treatments. But our standards for fictional treatment of the courts, and especially the Court, are high.

Check out our reviews, after the jump.

Yesterday we learned the identities of Justice Clarence Thomas's outstanding law clerks for October Term 2009. With the very interesting exception of Justice David Souter -- who appears not to have hired yet, but email us if we're wrong -- the justices are done hiring for OT 2009.

Based on the SCOTUS clerk roster thus far, here are the top five feeder schools:

1. Harvard: 8
1. Yale: 8
3. UVA: 4
4. Georgetown: 2
4. Michigan: 2

And here are the top five eight feeder judges (note the four-way tie for fifth):

1. J. Harvie Wilkinson (4th Cir.): 4
2. D. Ginsburg (D.C. Cir.): 3
2. O'Scannlain (9th Cir.): 3
2. Sutton (6th Cir.): 3
5. Garland (D.C. Cir.): 2
5. Kavanaugh (D.C. Cir.): 2
5. Kozinski (9th Cir.): 2
5. Reinhardt (9th Cir.): 2

Check out the full lists, for OT 2009 and OT 2010, after the jump.

In today's Morning Docket, we linked to an interesting article, by Adam Liptak of the New York Times, concerning a recent public appearance by Justice Clarence Thomas before a group of high school essay contest winners. The WSJ Law Blog collects a number of fun tidbits -- such as Justice Thomas's declaration that "the dishwasher is a miracle," and his weakness for Saving Private Ryan.

This passage caught our eye:

"I am rounding the last turn for my 18th term on the court," [Justice Thomas] added, but his work -- "this endeavor," he called it, "or, for some, an ordeal" -- has not gotten easier.

"That's one thing about this job," he said. "You get a little tired."

So does this mean that Justice Thomas might retire? CT is usually silent on the bench; he doesn't seem to enjoy the intellectual combat of oral argument, a la Justices Scalia or Breyer. One wonders whether he might be happier driving around in his RV, which is how he passes his summers, than hanging out at One First Street, cranking out opinions.

But don't expect CT to step down anytime soon. He's still just 60 years old -- he turns 61 on June 23 -- which makes him a spring chicken by SCOTUS standards. He sees his service on the Court as a great honor and civic calling, as he explained in his superb memoir, My Grandfather's Son. He's also quite good at his job: no matter what Senator Harry Reid might say, Justice Thomas is widely regarded as a fine craftsman of judicial opinions (including many in highly technical statutory fields).

Oh, and Justice Thomas has hired clerks for October Term 2009. Now, clerk hiring evidence is not conclusive; some justices warn their hires that they might retire at any time. But since it would be cruel and unusual punishment to bestow a SCOTUS clerkship on someone and then take it away, hiring clerks is certainly suggestive of an intention to stay (just like bulk conference room reservations, by the "Office of Attorney Development," are circumstantial evidence of looming lawyer layoffs).

More on the subject of Supreme Court clerk hiring, after the jump.

We take back what we previously wrote about Justice Samuel Alito being "a bit secretive about his clerk hiring." Presumably Justice Alito signed off on this press release issued by Seton Hall Law School, announcing the hiring of Lucas Townsend (Seton Hall 2004 / Ackerman (D.N.J.) / Trump Barry) as an Alito clerk for October Term 2009.

Congratulations to Townsend and to Seton Hall, which has placed its first graduate into a SCOTUS clerkship. From a tipster:

We just got this email [a slightly tweaked version of the press release] from the dean. Not bad for a school that most of the elitists on ATL would consider a TTT. Although SHU will never sniff the T-14, the school has been steadily climbing the U.S. News rankings, and I think this alum's accomplishment might help that cause.

We also had the best showing of New York Vault 100 placement ever by this year's 2L class. Things are looking good on this side of the Hudson.

Additional Supreme Court clerk hiring news, plus updated lists of Supreme Court clerks for OT 2009 and OT 2010, after the jump.

Okay, so Chief Justice John Roberts can't administer an oath of office to save his life. But he can hire brilliant and fabulous law clerks:

1. James McDonald (UVA 2007 / Sutton)

2. Stephen Sachs (Yale 2007 / S. Williams)

2. Erik Zimmerman (Stanford 2007/Wilkinson)

They join the previously hired Roman Martinez (Yale 2008 / Kavanaugh), filling up JGR's chambers for October Term 2009.

We also hear that Justice Samuel A. Alito is done hiring for OT 2009. In addition to Jaynie Randall's previously reported hiring, we can now add:

1. Amit Agarwal (Georgetown / Kavanaugh)

2. K. Winn Allen (UVA / Sutton)

If you know the identity of the fourth Alito clerk, please drop us a line. We hear that SAA is a bit secretive about his clerk hiring, which strikes us as a bit silly. As a former prosecutor, Justice Alito should be familiar with the inevitable discovery doctrine. Why guard the identities of Supreme Court clerks so jealously, when they're all going to be made public eventually by the Court's Public Information Office?

Updated lists of Supreme Court clerks, for OT 2009 and OT 2010, after the jump.

Last night we wrote about some of the top-notch talent that will be filling senior legal positions in the Obama Administration. These are big names, and you probably also read about them in big publications, like the Legal Times or the Wall Street Journal.

ATL is willing to drill down deeper. We now bring you personnel news at more junior levels. If you graduated law school in the past 15 or even 10 years, you might actually know some of these people.

Our prior post focused on two of the most prestigious parts of the Department of Justice: the Solicitor General's office, and the Office of Legal Counsel. We now turn our attention to two other top offices: the White House Counsel's office, and the office of the Deputy Attorney General.

Over 300,000 people applied for 3,300 positions in the Obama administration. After going through a ridiculous screening process, these fine folks landed 20 of the most coveted legal jobs in the country.

See if you know any of them, after the jump.

With Barack Obama about to assume the presidency, alongside a heavily Democratic Senate, the justices in the liberal wing of the Supreme Court are free to retire if they like. Don't be surprised if Justice David Souter, never a fan of life at One First Street, heads for the exit early in the Obama presidency.

But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Stephen Breyer plan to stick around for a bit, at least based on their law clerk hiring. Justice Ginsburg has hired all of her October Term 2009 clerks, as well as at least two for October Term 2010. And Justice Breyer, in addition to filling all his OT 2009 spots, has hired at least three for OT 2010.

We previously reported on Justice Breyer's hiring of Erika Myers (Stanford 2008 / Kozinski). Today we bring you two more SGB clerks for OT 2010:

1. Natalie Ram (Yale 2008 / Calabresi)

2. David Zionts (Harvard 2008 / Garland)

In addition, here's another hire by Justice Clarence Thomas, for OT 2009:

Elizabeth Papez (Harvard 1999 / Boggs)

Papez is no stranger to these pages. We previously mentioned her move from Kirkland & Ellis, where she was a partner, to the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (where she entered as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, and currently serves as Deputy Assistant Attorney General). Papez's career trajectory -- from K&E partner, to high-ranking DOJ official, to Supreme Court law clerk -- is a sign of just how coveted a SCOTUS clerkship is, as both a credential and a life experience.

Updated lists of Supreme Court clerks, for OT 2009 and OT 2010, after the jump.

Our last round-up of Supreme Court clerk hiring was published back in August, before the start of October Term 2008. Now that the justices are back in the country and back on the bench, they're back to interviewing clerkship applicants.

Over at the Clerkship Notification Blog, there was buzz about Justice Stephen Breyer interviewing and hiring clerks for October Term 2009. That intelligence was correct. Here are his hires:

1. Christopher Fonzone (Harvard 2007 / Wilkinson)

2. Jennifer Nou (Yale 2008 / Posner)

Fonzone appears to be the "2007 Harvard grad" referenced in the comments. With Chris Fonzone and Jen Nou on board, Justice Breyer is all done for OT 2009. (We also hear that he's started to hire for October Term 2010, but we have no details.)

Update (3:40 PM): We now know one of SGB's hires for OT 2010:

Erika Myers (Stanford 2008 / Kozinski)

Interesting -- although Chief Judge Kozinski is a big-time feeder, he tends to feed more to the right side of the Court. So he may be expanding his range as a feeder judge.

The updated list of Supreme Court clerks, with Fonzone and Nou and Myers added, appears after the jump.

As the old saying goes, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a lawyer to be hired as a lateral partner at Williams & Connolly." The last lateral partner to be hired by the super-elite litigation shop, which people and corporations turn to when they're in the deepest of doo-doo, was Gerald Feffer, brought into the fold over two decades ago.

So this latest move is fairly big news. Appellate superstar Kannon Shanmugam, one of Washington's top 40 lawyers under 40 (see #21), is leaving the Solicitor General's office, where he has served for the past four years as an Assistant to the Solicitor General. He'll be joining Williams & Connolly -- as a partner.

"It's very hard to leave the Justice Department, but I'm excited about the challenge of helping to build the appellate practice at Williams & Connolly," Shanmugam told us. "It's arguably the best firm for litigation in the country, but what ultimately attracted me to the firm is its distinctive culture."

"We are thrilled to have Kannon join us," said Robert Barnett, a member of the firm's Executive Committee (and author rep to the stars -- he's negotiated book deals for the Clintons, Barack Obama, Bob Woodward, Lynne Cheney, and Alan Greenspan, among others). "He's our first lateral partner in 22 years, which is indicative of how rarely we have lateral partners join us."

"Almost everyone at the firm is homegrown, coming up through the associate ranks and making partner," explained Barnett to ATL. "Kannon, because of his exceptional qualities, is going to be a rare exception to that pattern. On a personal level, he's a terrific individual. But we are also extremely respectful and welcoming of his legal skills."

Word on the street is that Shanmugam received offers from about half a dozen other firms. "He was sought by many firms, and being as competitive as we are, we're pleased to have won the Kannon sweepstakes," said Bob Barnett.

Additional discussion, after the jump.

The start of the new Supreme Court Term is still over a month away. The nine robed ones are all over the world -- teaching in Europe, chilling in New Hampshire, and otherwise getting away from One First Street.

So things have been relatively quiet on the Supreme Court clerk hiring front. There are no new names over at the Clerkship Notification Blog or at Wikipedia (which also seems to be missing a few names that we reported last month).

But there has been some movement. We hear that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently hired David Newman (Yale 2006 / Katzmann / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.)) as her second law clerk for October Term 2010. (RBG has already completed her OT 2009 hiring.)

Have other justices interrupted their summer vacations to do some clerk hiring? If you're aware of some news not previously reported in these pages, please share what you know, by email (subject line: "Supreme Court clerk hiring").

If you're interested, check out the updated list of Supreme Court clerks for OT 2009 and OT 2010 (with David Newman added), after the jump.

Good news for Legal Eagle Wedding Watchers: LEWW will be returning to a more frequent and timely posting schedule! Beginning next week, we'll once again feature our gold standard of three fabulous couples per week to ogle and dissect.

We'll bring you more hot August weddings tomorrow and Friday, but for now, it's time for our readers to vote on a Couple of the Month for July. Although their write-up wasn't in the NYT and therefore didn't run in our normal LEWW column, we're including celebrity professors Samantha Power and Cass Sunstein, whose union merited LEWW bonus coverage last month (as well as a shout-out in the Washington Post's Reliable Source column).

For more information on these newlyweds, click on the link below. When you're ready to vote, here's the poll:

Former Supreme Court clerks, also known as the Elect, have no shortage of job opportunities. And a new development in state government is giving them even more. From the National Law Journal:

A trend among states in recent years to appoint a solicitor general has increased opportunities for young attorneys to get into court and ultimately return to private practice far from Washington, the traditional heart of the nation's appellate bar.

In the past decade, a dozen states, including California, Florida and North Carolina, have added state solicitor generals [sic], many of whom oversee large staffs, said Dan Schweitzer, Supreme Court counsel for the National Association of Attorneys General. Nationwide, 37 states have a solicitor general, he said.

"There are a lot more appellate positions that attract top-notch lawyers," Schweitzer said.

There are shout-outs to several hot young lawyers whose names should be familiar to ATL readers.

Find out who, after the jump.

We interrupt the spirited smackdown of ATL Idol to bring you a couple of LEWW-related announcements. First, as expected, Team Ho-Glover scored a decisive win in June's Couple of the Month voting. LEWW salutes this glorious SCOTUS - WGWAG - Friend-of-Lat juggernaut!

In other news, two notable grooms didn't make our list of finalists this week. The first is Lee Bollinger, son of current Columbia University president (and former University of Michigan president) Lee Bollinger. And the second is Paul Lieberstein, who looks a lot like that guy who plays Toby in The Office. Because he is that guy.

On to this week's contestants:

1. Sue-Yun Ahn and Charles Kitcher

2. Jennifer Hare and Jaron Shipp

3. Gena Hatcher and David Lenzi

4. Athena Theodoro and Daniel Adamson

Click on the link below to read more about these impressive legal matches.

It's nearly August, and we still haven't crowned ATL's Legal Eagle Couple of the Month for June. Time to vote!

As we did last month, we've added a third couple to round out the choices. We thought that Mary Fan and Dean Kawamoto were the month's strongest runners-up, so we've included them for your consideration. Last month, the "bonus couple" waltzed away with the title; let's see if Mary and Dean can pull off a similar upset.

If you're ready to vote, here's the poll. To read more about the couples, click on the link below.

A few weeks ago, Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the Most Holy D.C. Circuit warned summer associates not to do anything that would get them a shout-out on Above the Law. Law school career counselors, we're told, tell students the same thing when advising them about how to conduct themselves as summer associates.

That may be wise advice, as far as Biglaw goes. You don't want to stand out from the crowd. Work hard, keep your head down, get the offer.

But if you're gunning for the ultimate credential in the legal profession, a coveted U.S. Supreme Court clerkship, could a little bit of publicity on ATL perhaps be a good thing? Could the Elect be governed by a different set of rules than mere mortals?

Am Law 200 law firms are expected to hire about 10,000 new associates this fall (although query whether that number will go down with the economy). In contrast, the nine justices, plus retired Justice O'Connor, hire just 37 new law clerks each year. Thus, unlike summer associates, Supreme Court clerks DO need to stand out from the crowd to land their jobs.

Interestingly enough, a number of Harvard Law School students who were mentioned by name on ATL subsequently landed SCOTUS clerkships. Consider:

As promised, we're back with our second installment of LEWW this week. We think you'll agree that this one features some of our finest contestants of the season. A SCOTUS clerkship (finally!), a Rhodes, more YLS grads -- enjoy this special Independence Day edition of the Legal Eagle Wedding Watch!

Here are the names:

1. Stephanie Denton and Zeno Baucus

2. Mary Fan and Dean Kawamoto

3. Emma Terrell and Trevor Leitch

4. Courtenay Van Sciver and Peter Washkowitz

5. Maria Glover and Derek Ho

Click on the "continue reading" link below to see these couples' photos and sparkly credentials.

While we're on the subject of Supreme Court clerks...

The AMK clerk who worked on Kennedy v. Louisiana, in which the Court held that imposing the death penalty for raping a child was unconstitutional, has committed an even bigger boo-boo than the JGR clerk who screwed up the Bob Dylan quotation.

As noted yesterday, sometimes the Elect are "just like us."

In Court Ruling on Executions, a Factual Flaw [New York Times]
The Supremes Dis the Military Justice System [CAAFlog]

What'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.