Supreme Court Clerks

Clerkships are nice, but they aren't everything.

* Uh, no collusion? In a lawsuit over the TRUST Act, Trump’s lawyers have accused congressional Democrats and New York state officials of colluding to expose the president’s financial information. [New York Law Journal]

* “You may recognize some of this. I hope I’ve improved it a little bit since you’ve last seen it.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg welcomed Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court by gifting to him the clerk manual that he was assigned to create for Justice Byron White while he was clerking, who later gave it to his successor, the Notorious RBG. [CNN]

* Was Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings politically motivated? Comments made by one of her lawyers reportedly seem to indicate that Ford spoke out to protect Roe. v. Wade. [Newsweek]

* “Being a lawyer is the most stressful yet boring job in the world. I’d never recommend it to anyone. Ever.” About half of attorneys working in U.K. Biglaw firms have experienced mental health issues like depression and stress due to their jobs. [Legal Week]

* “Can y’all play nice or do I have to attend these depositions?” A completely reasonable request from a judge after one of the lawyers on a case allegedly slapped another lawyer in the face before a prior deposition. [Texas Lawyer]

* Morrison & Foerster wants all of the employment records from the new firm of a former associate who’s anonymously for gender discrimination, claiming they’re relevant to her “negative reference” retaliation allegations. Sheesh… [Big Law Business]

* In a series of wide-ranging interviews across the political spectrum — or “Fake News,” per President Trump — the commander in chief’s closest allies admitted that they didn’t think he had any idea what he’d done or what kind of havoc he’d wreaked with his racist tweets. [Washington Post]

* According to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report contains “very substantial evidence” that the president is “guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.” Let’s see if Mueller’s testimony can change any minds on impeachment. [CNN]

* After one scandal too many, it looks like Deutsche Bank has decided to hire someone new to look after its legal and regulatory affairs. [Corporate Counsel]

* Students and alumni from Penn Law are calling for Professor Amy Wax’s ouster from faculty teaching duties following her latest foray into racism. [Big Law Business]

* Aside from Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld and Clayton Kozinski, who else will be clerking for Supreme Court justices for the upcoming October term? In addition to these controversial choices, we’ve got the second blind person to ever clerk at the high court, and someone who was picked dead last in the 2010 MLB draft. [Associated Press]

* Joan Bullock, former dean of Thomas Jefferson Law School, has decamped to become Dean at the Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Congrats! [National Jurist]

Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of Amy ‘Tiger Mother’ Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, will clerk at the Supreme Court this coming Term -- along with these other impressive young legal minds.

This time around, there's an interesting little twist.

But not everyone is thrilled that the number has climbed so high.

'You muthaf**kas are slipping!'

Even hiring one clerk every few years from a non-'elite' law school can have a profound impact on the school, its students, and the surrounding legal community.

All four are women, a first at One First Street, and thanks to them, women constitute a majority of this Term's clerks -- the first time this has happened in SCOTUS history.

* In case you missed it amidst all the craziness of last week, Monday was Constitution Day — and as Judge Don Willett reminds us, it’s up to us to keep our constitutional republic strong. [Wall Street Journal]

* The Supreme Court clerk class of October Term 2008: where are they now? Derek Muller has tracked them down. [Excess of Democracy]

* Senator Dianne Feinstein is under fire, and not just for her handling of the Kavanaugh nomination — but she’s still likely to emerge victorious in November, as Kashmir Hill reports. [Splinter]

* The past 12 months haven’t been easy for superlawyer David Boies — but he’s still very busy (and also a bit wiser), as he tells Jim Stewart. [New York Times]

* It’s only a matter of time before the Supreme Court has to address the rights of transgender students under Title IX, according to Justin Driver — who’s the author of a buzz-generating new book, The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind (affiliate link). [Reason / Volokh Conspiracy]

* If you’re looking for advice about discipline, focus, happiness, and relationships — and who isn’t? — here’s a podcast you might want to check out. [University of Good / SoundCloud]

* Law firm mergers are notoriously hit or miss — so this new M&A intelligence tool from ALM could come in very handy. [Dewey B Strategic]

* Congratulations to the six new participants in LexisNexis’s third Silicon Valley Legal Tech Accelerator program! [Artificial Lawyer]

* Thanks to the not-so-orphaned Kennedy clerks, this Term could see a record number of clerks at the Supreme Court, as Tony Mauro reports. [National Law Journal]

* Speaking of clerks, I talk quite a bit about them and their role in this interview with Kaley Pillinger about my writing career (from Underneath Their Robes to Above the Law to Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link)). [The Politic]

* Speaking of SCOTUS, and more specifically of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the high court, Ed Whelan responds to the arguments of Senate Democrats against — yes, against — the prompt provision of records from Kavanaugh’s years as White House counsel. [Bench Memos / National Review]

* If Judge Kavanaugh becomes Justice Kavanaugh, how will that affect the Court’s business jurisprudence? Adam Feldman has this analysis. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* The failure of Ryan Bounds’s Ninth Circuit nomination could be a “teachable moment” for Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), according to Will Folks. [FITSNews]

* Speaking of disappointing failures to confirm, Paul Mirengoff shares my frustration over the inexcusable delays in Department of Justice confirmations. [Power Line]

* It’s unfair to dismiss Seinfeld as “a show about nothing”; episodes offer insight into numerous legal issues — for example, the law of conspiracy. [Seinfeld Law]

* Kal Raustiala and Christopher Jon Sprigman offer interesting reflections on how data-driven authorship might affect the way we think about creativity and copyright. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* If you’re interested in litigation finance, there’s a conference coming up next month here in New York that you might want to check out. [LF Dealmakers Forum]

What's happening to the "orphaned" law clerks who were hired by Justice Kennedy before he announced his retirement?

* Guess which law school is on the verge of losing its accreditation? We’ll have more on this unsurprising news later today. [Arizona Republic]

* When it comes to Milbank’s new $190K salary scale for associates, some general counsel and in-house leaders don’t seem to really care, and others are none too thrilled about it, but absolutely NONE of them want to pay for it. [Corporate Counsel]

* How much does President Donald Trump detest AG Jeff Sessions? This much! The president says he’ll probably support legislation protecting marijuana activities in states where the drug has been legalized. [NBC News]

* Pointing out numerous dueling injunctions in a Friday night filing, the Trump administration’s Justice Department is paving the way for a SCOTUS showdown over DACA — possibly as soon as sometime this summer. [BuzzFeed]

* If you’re planning to someday become a Supreme Court clerk, you better make sure that your law school is following the new law clerk hiring plan. Justice Sonia Sotomayor is now the fourth justice to offer her support, following in the footsteps of Justices Kagan, Ginsburg, and Breyer. [National Law Journal]

Congratulations to all of these amazing young lawyers!

Congratulations to Tobi Young as she makes history at the high court!

Plus rankings of the law schools and lower-court judges that send the most folks into these prestigious posts.

This young legal eagle is following in his famous mother's footsteps by joining the Harvard Law School faculty.

And he's a Supreme Court clerk to boot!

Justice Thomas, quiet on the bench, opens up in a media interview -- with his wife!

* Okay, let’s get this straight: Roy Moore’s Jewish lawyer isn’t Richard Jaffe, the one who voted for Doug Jones; no, Roy Moore’s Jewish lawyer is Martin Wishnatsky, the one who “has accepted Christ” as his savior. [Washington Post]

* In our last Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch, we focused a bit on the fact that rumored retiree Justice Anthony Kennedy hired a full set of clerks for OT 2018, but in case you missed it, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg already has a full set of clerks for OT 2019. The Notorious one isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. [Newsweek]

* Lawyers for the Department of Justice who are attempting to defend the Trump administration’s rescission of the DACA program have asked Judge William Alsup, who is handling the case, to ignore our “very stable genius” president’s recent tweets regarding the immigration policy. [The Recorder]

* Evan Greebel, pharma bro Martin Shkreli’s ex-lawyer, is facing hard prison time for conspiracy, but one of the juror’s who convicted him is having second thoughts. The former Biglaw partner better hope that Judge Kiyo Matsumoto decides to reopen his case. [Big Law Business]

* In what may have been some sort of a Christmas miracle, the legal sector witnessed a very slight uptick in jobs in December. Beggars can’t be choosers, so a gain of 600 jobs is better than nothing at all. Employment in the profession is still nowhere near where it once was before the recession. [American Lawyer]

* Lewis Donelson, cofounder of Baker Donelson, RIP. [Memphis Business Journal]