Biglaw, Courts

Elite Biglaw Firms Likely To Offer $450K In Signing Bonuses To Supreme Court Clerks

Which firms will be throwing so much cash at supreme talent?

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(Image via Getty)

Just how much is a former Supreme Court clerk worth? How much are Biglaw firms and prestigious boutiques willing to pay to woo associates with supreme intellect and inside insights about how the nation’s highest court operates and how certain justices think? Back in 2018, we reported that $400,000 was the prevailing rate for signing bonuses for former Supreme Court clerks. Yes, you read that correctly: former SCOTUS clerks were making almost double their Supreme bosses’ salaries in bonus money just for signing on the dotted line, on top of their base salaries and regular bonuses.

We know of several firms — off hand, those firms are Jones Day, Kirkland & Ellis, Orrick, Paul Weiss, Skadden Arps, Gibson Dunn, and Susman Godfrey — that have offered $400,000 bonuses to their SCOTUS clerk recruits in the past. Two years later, in September 2020, with the economic upheaval of a pandemic to deal with, not much had changed, and $400K was still the status quo. But now, in this post-COVID Biglaw world, where cash compensation in the form of higher salaries and special bonuses upon special bonuses is flowing fast and free for associates, the market for SCOTUS bonuses is going to the moon, with some forecasting signing bonuses of $450,000 (or more) for recent high court clerks.

According to the National Law Journal, leaders of several appellate practices say their firms will be opening the coffers wide for associates fresh off a high court clerkship. Here are some of the details:

“Bonuses have been $400,000 for the last couple of years, but I suspect it will be more this year,” said the head of one appellate practice in D.C., who, like other practice leaders for this report, declined to be named in order to speak more candidly.

“This year, we’re probably looking at $450,000,” said the chair of another appellate practice in D.C. Half a million is a “psychological barrier for most firms,” said the chair, but some firms may even go that high “just for the perceived value,” especially a boutique firm.

Those figures reflect the scarcity of the resource, the appellate chair added, noting there are about 35 law clerks currently at the U.S. Supreme Court. “It reflects something about a perceived view about prestige in bringing these clerks to a firm. But to me, most of all, it represents something about the expertise they have after spending a year at the Supreme Court.”

Jones Day tends to corner the market on Supreme Court clerks each year. The firm recently welcomed nine SCOTUS clerks from the 2019-2020 term, and since 2011, 64 former SCOTUS clerks have joined the firm. That having been said, while we’re working on cracking open Jones Day’s compensation black box, it’s helpful to know just how much money may be getting paid to these clerks in the form of signing bonuses, rather than to other associates in the form of their reportedly undermarket salaries.

If you know that your firm is paying $450,000 or more for SCOTUS clerks, email us (subject line: “SCOTUS Clerkship Bonuses”) or text us (646-820-8477), and we’ll compile a list of every firm that’s paying so generously for supreme talent.

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Signing Bonuses for Supreme Court Clerks Are Set for Another Jump [National Law Journal]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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