Nine Plus: Supreme Court Clerks by the Numbers

Clerking for the Supreme Court is one of the most prestigious gigs a new lawyer can secure; it can lead to better jobs, bigger salaries, and obscene signing bonuses. Let’s take a look at the young legal minds who will have the magical experience of working for the Court this year.

In case you’re behind on your billables and don’t have time to tally the vital statistics yourself, we’ve done the complicated math for you. Of the 36 Supreme Court clerks, 26 (72.2 percent) attended private law schools, 18 graduated from Ivy League schools, and 12 went to Harvard.

The University of Virginia has the strongest showing in the public school category, with four clerks in the 2011 class. Yale and Stanford also have four clerks, while Georgetown rounds out the multiple clerks list with two. The list, reported by Above the Law, is below.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts

• Christopher DiPompeo (U. Penn 2009)
• Frederick Liu (Yale 2008)
• Colleen Roh (Harvard 2010)
• Hagan Scotten (Harvard 2010)

Justice Antonin Scalia

• Donald Burke (UVA 2008)
• Rebecca Krauss (Yale 2010)
• Carl Marchioli (Harvard 2010)
• John Moran (UVA 2010)

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy

• Ishan Bhabha (Harvard 2009)
• Leah Litman (Michigan 2010)
• Eric Nguyen (Harvard 2009)
• Justin Walker (Harvard 2009)

Justice Clarence Thomas

• Liam Hardy (Georgetown 2008)
• Brian Lea (UGA 2009)
• Matt Nicholson (UVA 2009)
• Michelle Stratton (née Shamblin) (LSU 2009)

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

• Rachel Wainer Apter (Harvard 2007)
• Benjamin Beaton (Columbia 2009)
• Jennifer Clark (Georgetown 2008)
• Gerry Sinzdak (Berkeley 2008)

Justice Stephen G. Breyer

• Rachel Bloomekatz (UCLA 2008)
• Jonathan Bressler (Harvard 2010)
• Andrew Dawson (Stanford 2008)
• Rebecca Stone (NYU 2009)

Justice Samuel Alito

• Sarah Campbell (Duke 2009)
• Anthony Dick (Stanford 2010)
• William Levi (Yale 2010)
• Ryan Newman (U. Texas 2007)

Justice Sonia Sotomayor

• Michael Bern (Harvard 2008)
• Mark Hiller (UVA 2009)
• Daniel Habib (Yale 2010)
• Jane Kucera (Harvard 2008)

Justice Elena Kagan

• Jeff Johnson (Harvard 2010)
• Rakesh Kilaru (Stanford 2010)
• Erica Ross (Stanford 2009)
• Jonathan Schneller (Harvard 2010)

Justice Kennedy clearly likes HLS grads, pulling three of his four clerks from the prestigious institution; Justice Thomas, by contrast, hired three graduates from public law schools. Duly noted: Thomas may only choose clerks who have worked for a judge appointed by a Republican president, but he is willing to take a chance on a state-school kid.

The greater lesson learned: a private legal education could be worth its debt in Supreme Court clerkship gold.

Related Resources:

• Supreme Court Releases October Hearing Schedule (FindLaw's Supreme Court Blog)
• Pew Poll: How Should SCOTUS Interpret the U.S. Constitution? (FindLaw's Supreme Court Blog)
• Didn't Get That Judicial Clerkship? How About Congressional Law Clerk (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)