Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: The Official List
Congratulations to these 34 outstanding young lawyers!
Part of me feels a little bad for the Supreme Court clerks for October Term 2015, who are finishing up their tours of duty and leaving SCOTUS this month. OT 2015 didn’t have quite as many blockbuster or history-making cases as some other recent Terms. Instead, as noted in MoloLamken’s (excellent) round-up of OT 2015’s business cases, “With the untimely passing of Justice Scalia — and the Senate’s unwillingness to confirm a successor — the Court found itself with an even number of Justices. When the Court divides 4-4 over a case, the lower court’s decision is affirmed without opinion in an order that has no precedential significance…. [T]he Court was at pains to muster a majority wherever it could, resulting in more modest and incremental rulings.”
More modest rulings, fewer juicy war stories for SCOTUS clerks to tell their friends. But those $300,000 to $330,000 signing bonuses — on top of (at least) third-year associate base salaries, now higher thanks to Cravath — are ample consolation.
The incoming Supreme Court clerks, the SCOTUS clerks for October Term 2016, should presumably have a more interesting time at the Court. Senate Republicans have held the line so far on not confirming a successor to Justice Scalia, but we could see action in the lame duck session on Chief Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination — and if he’s not confirmed, then we should definitely get a nominee in early 2017 from either President Clinton or President Trump.
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Who are the 38 34 lucky (and talented) young lawyers whose Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link) have been realized? I’m embarrassed to see how long ago my last SCOTUS clerk hiring round-up appeared. But I’m back, by popular demand — and nudged by the availability of the Supreme Court’s official list of incoming law clerks, which I recently obtained from our friends in the Court’s Public Information Office (a list I’ve posted in full here).
As previously explained, this initial list does not not include law school and prior clerkship information, which the Public Information Office will release later this year. So in the list below, the names come from the PIO but the law school and feeder judge information come from me (or, more accurately, my sources — you, the wonderful readers of Above the Law).
You’ve waited long enough for this list, so I won’t delay the names with more discussion. I’ll have color commentary on the OT 2016 clerks later, along with the latest in October Term 2017 hiring.
If you have any corrections to the law school and prior clerkship information appearing below for OT 2016 clerks, or if you have any hiring news for OT 2017, please reach out by email or text (646-820-8477). Please include the words “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring” in your email or text message, perhaps as the subject line of your email or the first words of your text, because that’s how I locate these tips in my (overwhelmed) inbox. Thanks!
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(If you’d like to view or download a copy of the Supreme Court’s official list of OT 2016 law clerks, you can access it here. Note that Justice Scalia’s seat hasn’t been filled and retired Justice O’Connor has stopped hiring clerks, why is why there are just 34 names instead of 39 on the list.)
OCTOBER TERM 2016 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of July 22, 2016)
Chief Justice John G. Roberts
1. Thomas S. Burnett (Harvard 2014 / Livingston)
2. Marguerite B. Colson (Yale 2015 / Kavanaugh)
3. Rachel G. Miller-Ziegler (Harvard 2015 / Garland)
4. Conor M. Reardon (Duke 2014 / Cabranes / Chatigny (D. Conn.))
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
1. Alex Harris (Harvard 2015 / Gorsuch)
2. William Perdue (Yale 2011 / Katzmann / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.))
3. J.J. Snidow (Yale 2014 / Kethledge / Thapar (E.D. Ky.))
4. Thomas Sprankling (Columbia 2012 / Kozinski)
Justice Clarence Thomas
1. Andrew N. Ferguson (UVA 2012 / Henderson)
2. Kasdin M. Mitchell (Yale 2012 / W. Pryor)
3. Austin L. Raynor (UVA 2013 / Wilkinson)
4. Jacob T. Spencer (Harvard 2012 / J. Smith / O’Scannlain)
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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1. Subash S. Iyer (NYU 2013 / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) / Katzmann)
2. Hajin Kim (Stanford 2014 / Watford)
3. Beth C. Neitzel (Stanford 2013 /D. Motz (4th Cir.) / Tatel)
4. Parker A. Rider-Longmaid (Penn 2013 / Scirica / Pratter (E.D. Pa.) / Bristow Fellow)
Justice Stephen G. Breyer
1. Daniel E. Herz-Roiphe (Yale 2015 / Garland)
2. Denise Lambert Drake (Stanford 2013 / Higginbotham / C. Breyer)
3. Brian M. Richardson (Yale 2011 / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) / Katzmann)
4. Rachel G. Shalev (Yale 2014 / Fletcher / Pillard)
Justice Samuel Alito
1. Joel Alicea (Harvard 2013 / O’Scannlain)
2. Benjamin J. Cassady (Yale 2013 / Griffith)
3. Nicole C. Frazer (UVA 2015 / Sutton)
4. Alex Potapov (Yale 2008 / S. Williams)
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
1. Kirti Datla (NYU 2012 / Thapar (E.D. Ky.) / Sutton )
2. Alex C. Hemmer (Yale 2014 / Fletcher / Moss (D.D.C.))
3. Kamaile A.N. Turčan (Hawai’i 2008 / Ezra (D. Haw.) / Clifton)
4. Tiffany Wright (Georgetown 2013 / Lamberth (D.D.C.) / Tatel)
Justice Elena Kagan
1. Elizabeth Bewley (Harvard 2015 / Griffith)
2. Gerard Cedrone (Harvard 2014 / Gorsuch)
3. Ben Eidelson (Yale 2014 / Garland)
4. Betsy Henthorne (Georgetown 2014 / G. Woods (S.D.N.Y.) / Srinivasan)
Justice John Paul Stevens (retired)
1. Teresa Reed (Stanford 2015 / Millett)
Justice David H. Souter (retired):
1. Edwina B. Clarke (Yale 2013 / Reinhardt / Oetken (S.D.N.Y.) / Barron)
Do you know about a hire not previously reported, or do you have an addition or correction to any of this info? Please share what you know by email or text (646-820-8477). Please include the words “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring” in your email or text message, as the subject line of your email or the first words of your text, because that’s how I locate these tips in my inundated inbox. Thanks!
(Flip to the next page for the Supreme Court’s official clerk list.)
Supreme Ambitions [Amazon (affiliate link)]
Supreme Court Business Briefing [MoloLamken]
Earlier: Making SCOTUS Great Again: Trump’s Supreme Court Shortlist
Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Ranking The Non-Traditional Feeder Judges
Prior ATL coverage of Supreme Court law clerks
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].
