Job Searches, Kevin Newsom, R. Ted Cruz, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Clerks

A Hot New Trend: State Solicitors General

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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.


From the NLJ article:

“I want to raise my family here,” said Kevin C. Newsom, 35, a native of Birmingham, Ala. He joined Bradley Arant Rose & White in Birmingham as co-chairman of the firm’s appellate group in 2007 following service as state solicitor general….

Texas native R. Ted Cruz, who clerked for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist in 1996 and was a founding member of the 2000 Bush presidential campaign, was a rising Washington star when he got a call to serve as Texas solicitor general. In December 2002, while he was serving as chief of policy at the Federal Trade Commission, a friend called to ask if his name could be considered as Texas solicitor general.

“Until my buddy called, my plan had been to continue serving the [Bush] administration,” Cruz said. “I talked about it with my wife and called the next day to say I would be honored.”

When Cruz left to become a partner at Morgan Lewis & Bockius, he was replaced by Jim Ho, another former SCOTUS clerk with a blindingly bright future.
Cruz and Ho are Republicans and clerked for conservative justices (Rehnquist and Thomas, respectively). But a number of state SGs come from more left-leaning backgrounds, including Caitlin Halligan — former New York solicitor general, now at Weil Gotshal & Manges — and Ohio’s newly appointed SG, Benjamin Mizer. Halligan and Mizer clerked for more liberal justices (Breyer and Stevens, respectively).
State solicitor general appointments open doors for appellate practitioners [National Law Journal]
Attorney General names new solicitor general [Business First of Columbus]

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