Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Shout-Outs From Justice Kagan, And The Leading 'Feeder Firm'

Which law firms are on a roll when it comes to producing SCOTUS clerks?

When I try to explain law clerks to non-lawyers, I compare clerks to Santa’s elves: “They work behind the scenes, and their boss gets all the credit, but the system couldn’t work without them.” And that’s fairly accurate; for the most part, clerks are the unsung heroes of the federal judiciary, toiling in the shadows.

But lately they’ve been in the limelight, getting great shout-outs from Justice Elena Kagan during Supreme Court oral arguments. Justice Kagan has mentioned law clerks at least twice in October Term 2014 so far. Early in the Term, she raised a fun hypothetical about clerks who have to make breakfast for their boss — a scenario apparently based on the great Judge Edward Weinfeld (the subject of an excellent event I recently attended at the S.D.N.Y. courthouse at 40 Foley Square).

More recently, in the closely watched oral arguments in King v. Burwell, Justice Kagan tossed out this hypo:

So I have three clerks, their names are Will and Elizabeth and Amanda. Okay? So my first clerk, I say, Will, I’d like you to write me a memo. And I say, Elizabeth, I want you to edit Will’s memo once he’s done. And then I say, Amanda, listen, if Will is too busy to write the memo, I want you to write such memo. Now, my question is: If Will is too busy to write the memo and Amanda has to write such memo, should Elizabeth edit the memo?

Lady Kaga actually has four little monsters: Will Dreher, Daniel Hemel, Amanda Rice, and Elizabeth Wilkins. Initially I felt bad for Dan Hemel, who didn’t get a shout-out from the boss, until this possibility presented itself: perhaps Hemel’s memos don’t need editing?

In other news for my fellow judicial-clerkship obsessives:

1. The Marquette Law Review just published a great symposium issue, “Judicial Assistants or Junior Judges: The Hiring, Utilization, and Influence of Law Clerks.” I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the symposium, so I can vouch for the quality of the submissions. Check out the issue here.

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2. In case you missed it, earlier this month we published 7 Rising Star Judges You Want To Clerk For. Our friends at Ravel, an emerging legal research and analytics company, identified outstanding federal district judges who have been appointed in the past five years. The #1 rising star, Judge James E. Boasberg, has already been discussed in these pages as a district-judge feeder.

3. If you’d like to “nerd out” with me in person over judges and clerkships, come see me at my upcoming Chicago and Los Angeles events, tied to the publication of Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link). Note: you don’t have to have read the book to enjoy the events; I’ll be talking about lots of other stuff too, including my misadventures in legal blogging and Biglaw gossip that’s not fit to print.

Now, what you’ve come for: the lists of Supreme Court clerks for October Term 2015 and October Term 2016. You’ve waited long enough, so I’ll offer just one observation: for the clerks coming to SCOTUS out of private practice, it’s interesting to note their “feeder firms.” The clerks we’ve just added to the list come from big-name Biglaw firms, like Arnold & Porter and Jones Day, as well elite boutiques, like Bancroft and MoloLamken.

This time around, though, the big winner would seem to be the D.C. office of Gibson Dunn — which should surprise no one, given that GDC in D.C. is home to Ted Olson, Miguel Estrada, Tom Dupree, and one of the finest appellate and Supreme Court practices in the country. Of the clerks listed below, at least five will have spent time in Gibson’s Washington office (Sarah Boyce, Jim Ligtenberg, Marisa Maleck, and Scott Stewart as full-time associates, and Nick Harper as a summer associate). Is Gibson the top feeder firm right now? If you know of a firm sending more than five clerks to the Court for OT 2015 and OT 2016, please email us.

Another D.C. powerhouse with a great track record of minting SCOTUS clerks: Williams & Connolly, which sends many former summer and full-time associates to the Court. Speaking of W&C, we’ve heard some good news about the firm that we’re planning to cover tomorrow later this week. Feel free to email us or text us (646-820-8477) if you think you know what we’re talking about.

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The updated clerk lists — plural, because we now have enough hires to break out October Term 2016 separately — appear below. We have almost a full house for OT 2015; we’re missing one clerk to Justice Kennedy, one clerk to Justice Thomas, and one clerk to retired Justice Souter. We suspect that these folks have been hired already and we just don’t have their names yet. Can you help us out? As always, if you have additions or corrections, please email us (subject line: “SCOTUS clerk hiring”) or text us (646-820-8477). Thanks!

UPDATE (5:50 p.m.): Williams & Connolly has five former summer associates who will be clerking for the Court in OT 2015: Nikolas Bowie, Yaira Dubin, Daniel Feith, Jonathan Meltzer, and Aaron Pennekamp. The firm has seven alums clerking there now (OT 2014), and one so far for OT 2016 (Sean Mirski).

UPDATE (5:55 p.m.): Thank you, readers! That was fast. We’ve added Samir Deger-Sen (Yale 2013 / Mollway (D. Haw.) / Kozinski) to the AMK roster. Now we’re missing just the CT and DHS clerks.

UPDATE (10:53 p.m.): And now we’re not missing that Souter clerk. Sam Rothschild (Columbia 2013 / Boudin / Cote (S.D.N.Y.)), who will be clerking for Justice Souter in OT 2015, was initially misidentified as a clerk to Justice Ginsburg for OT 2016. (Apologies for the error; since Justice Souter’s clerk sometimes works for Justice Ginsburg, confusion can happen.)

UPDATE (10:55 p.m.): Add another to the Gibson Dunn tally: Alex Harris, an AMK clerk for OT 2016, worked at Gibson’s Denver office this past summer. (Also, please note that the mention of Nick Harper above was corrected to note that he worked as a summer rather than full-time associate in Gibson’s D.C. office.)

UPDATE (4/15/2015, 3:28 p.m.): Add another to the Williams & Connolly tally: Barbara Grieco is a former W&C summer. But she’ll be coming to the Court after working full-time at Bancroft, another leading “feeder firm.” In OT 2015, Bancroft will have at least three alums clerking for SCOTUS: Grieco, Taylor Meehan, and Harker Rhodes. Considering Bancroft’s tiny size, it is surely the top feeder firm on a per-capita basis — which shouldn’t surprise anyone, given that it’s the top firm by law school pedigree.

UPDATE (5/26/2015, 12:48 p.m.): One more for Gibson Dunn: John Urick summered at Gibson in D.C. in the summer of 2012.

OCTOBER TERM 2015 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of April 14, 2015)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts
1. Jake Brege (Michigan 2012 / Sentelle / Boasberg (D.D.C.))
2. Daniel Feith (Yale 2012 / Sullivan (S.D.N.Y.) / Griffith)
3. Ben Tyson (UVA 2014 / Srinivasan)
4. Katherine Booth Wellington (Harvard 2013 / Kavanaugh)

Justice Antonin Scalia
1. Sopan Joshi (Northwestern 2013 / Posner / Feinerman (N.D. Ill.))
2. Michael Kenneally (Harvard 2011 / Gorsuch)
3. Taylor Meehan (Chicago 2013 / W. Pryor)
4. Jonathan Urick (UVA 2013 / Sutton / Thapar (E.D. Ky.))

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
1. Elana Nightingale Dawson (Northwestern 2011 / Feinerman (N.D. Ill.) / Kethledge / Bristow)
2. Samir Deger-Sen (Yale 2013 / Mollway (D. Haw.) / Kozinski)
3. Andrew Kilberg (UVA 2014 / Wilkinson)
4. C. Harker Rhodes IV (Stanford 2012 / Zobel (D. Mass.) / Katzmann)

Justice Clarence Thomas
1. Sarah M. Harris (Harvard 2009 / Lynch (1st Cir.) / Silberman)
2. Marisa Maleck (Chicago 2011 / W. Pryor)
3. Scott G. Stewart (Stanford 2008 / O’Scannlain)
4. ?

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1. Z. Payvand Ahdout (Columbia 2013 / Livingston / Bristow)
2. Josh Bone (Yale 2013 / Tatel)
3. Sam Harbourt (Harvard 2013 / Garland / Bristow)
4. Amy Marshak (NYU 2011 / Rakoff / Katzmann)

Justice Stephen G. Breyer
1. Galen Bascom (UVA 2013 / Garland / Bristow)
2. Tejas Narechania (Columbia 2011 / D. Wood)
3. Aaron Pennekamp (Georgetown 2013 / Sutton / Bates (D.D.C.))
4. Farah Peterson (Yale 2012 / Calabresi)

Justice Samuel Alito
1. Jonathan A. Berry (Columbia 2011 / Smith (5th Cir.))
2. Barbara S. Grieco (Stanford 2012 / Griffith)
3. Jim Ligtenberg (Yale 2010 / Wilkinson)
4. Lucas Walker (Harvard 2009 / Gorsuch)

Justice Sonia Sotomayor
1. Easha Anand (Berkeley 2014 / Watford)
2. Nikolas Bowie (Harvard 2014 / Sutton)
3. Bridget Fahey (Yale 2014 / Kavanaugh)
4. Matt Shahabian (NYU 2011 / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) / Katzmann)

Justice Elena Kagan
1. Yaira Dubin (Harvard 2013 / Srinivasan / Boasberg (D.D.C.))
2. Jeremy Feigenbaum (Harvard 2014 / Fletcher)
3. Thomas Fu (Stanford 2014 / Garland)
4. Jonathan Meltzer (Yale 2013 / Wilkinson / Bristow)

Justice John Paul Stevens (retired)
1. Gillian Grossman (Harvard 2014 / Kavanaugh)

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (retired):
1. Sarah Boyce (Duke 2012 / Sutton / Bristow)

Justice David H. Souter (retired):
1. Sam Rothschild (Columbia 2013 / Boudin / Cote (S.D.N.Y.))


OCTOBER TERM 2016 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of April 14, 2015)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts
1. Marguerite Colson (Yale 2015 / Kavanaugh)
2. Rachel Miller-Ziegler (Harvard 2015 / Garland)
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Antonin Scalia
1. Nicole Frazer (Virginia 2015 / Sutton)
2. Nick Harper (Chicago 2015 / Kavanaugh)
3. Sean Mirski (Harvard 2015 / Kavanaugh)
4. ?

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
1. Alex Harris (Harvard 2015 / Gorsuch)
2. William Perdue (Yale 2011 / Katzmann / Rakoff)
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Clarence Thomas
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Stephen G. Breyer
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Samuel Alito
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Sonia Sotomayor
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Elena Kagan
1. Ben Eidelson (Yale 2014 / Garland)
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice John Paul Stevens (retired)
1. ?

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (retired):
1. ?

Justice David H. Souter (retired):
1. ?

Do you know about a hire we haven’t reported yet, or have an addition or correction to any of this info? Please email us (subject line: “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring”) or text us (646-820-8477). Thanks!

Upcoming Events In Chicago And Los Angeles [Supreme Ambitions]
Symposium: Judicial Assistants or Junior Judges: The Hiring, Utilization, and Influence of Law Clerks [Marquette Law Review]

Earlier: A Blind Item Revealed: A Judge Whose Clerks Must Cut His Grapefruit
7 Rising Star Judges You Want To Clerk For
Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: New Year, New Hires
Prior ATL coverage of Supreme Court law clerks