Where are they now? Supreme Court clerks, OT2004
Following up on last year's post on a ten-year retrospective on the Supreme Court clerks from October Term 2003, here's what the clerks from October Term 2004 are doing. This list is probably unreliable and has not been fact-checked in any way, except for the links provided (and these links often aren't the best source material).
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
Jeffrey L. Oldham (Northwestern 2003 / Posner), partner at Bracewell & Giuliani
Julius N. Richardson (Chicago 2003 / Posner), AUSA, D.S.C.
Ryan A. Shores (Virginia 2003 / Ripple), partner at Hunton & Williams
Justice John Paul Stevens
Melissa Arbus Sherry (Virginia 2003 / Motz), assistant to the Solicitor General, DOJ
Roberto J. Gonzalez (Stanford 2003 / Calabresi), Principal Deputy General Counsel, CFPB
Michael J. Gottlieb (Harvard 2003 / Reinhardt), partner at Boies Schiller
Daniel J. Powell (Chicago 2003 / W. Fletcher), deputy legal affairs secretary, Office of the Governor of California
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Joel C. Beauvais (NYU 2002 / H. Edwards), Associate Administrator, Office of Policy, EPA
Theane D. Evangelis (NYU 2003 / Kozinski), partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Tali Farhadian Weinstein (Yale 2003 / Garland), AUSA, E.D.N.Y.
Joshua Klein (Stanford 2002 / Garland), AUSA, C.D. Cal.
Justice Antonin Scalia
Curtis E. Gannon (Chicago 1998 / E. Jones), assistant to the Solicitor General, DOJ
William M. Jay (Harvard 2001 / O'Scannlain), partner at Goodwin Procter
Tara S. Kole (Harvard 2003 / Kozinski), partner at Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown
Jake Phillips (Chicago 2003 / Luttig), chief counsel, Boeing
Justice Anthony Kennedy
Andrew C. Baak (Chicago 2003 / Posner), partner at Bartlit Beck
Kathryn R. Haun (Stanford 2000 / Kozinski), AUSA, N.D. Cal.
Michael E. Scoville (Harvard 2003 / Luttig), partner at Perkins Coie
Matthew C. Stephenson (Harvard 2003 / S. Williams), professor at Harvard
Justice David H. Souter
Catherine M.A. Carroll (Michigan 2002 / H. Edwards), partner at WilmerHale
Matthew S. Hellman (Harvard 2002 / Boudin), partner at Jenner & Block
Christine B. Van Aken (NYU 2002 / Leval), deputy city attorney, San Francisco
Daniel S. Volchok (Harvard 2003 / Tatel), partner at WilmerHale
Justice Clarence Thomas
Jennifer Hardy (Yale 2003 / Garza), counsel at Kirkland & Ellis
Martha M. Pacold (Chicago 2002 / Bybee / Randolph), partner at Bartlit Beck
Jeffrey B. Wall (Chicago 2003 / Wilkinson), special counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell
Henry C. Whitaker (Harvard 2003 / Sentelle), Civil Division, DOJ
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ginger D. Anders (Columbia 2002 / Sotomayor / G. Lynch), assistant to the Solicitor General, DOJ
Katherine H. Ku (UCLA 2003 / Kozinski), partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson
Daniel B. Levin (Yale 2002 / W. Fletcher), partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson
Dorothy Hien Tran (Harvard 2003 / Tatel), director of global advocacy, Landesa
Justice Stephen Breyer
Christina Duffy Ponsa (Yale 1998 / Cabranes), professor at Columbia
James P. Dowden (Boston College 2000 / Scirica), partner at Ropes & Gray
Aimee A. Feinberg (Stanford 2002 / Tatel), director, California Supreme Court Clinic, UC Davis
Jake Sullivan (Yale 2003 / Calabresi), national security advisor to the Vice President
A few thoughts:
Unlike the October term 2003 class, there's not quite the clear divide upon roles for clerks to "conservative" (Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas) and "liberal" (Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer) justices. (These are, of course, imperfect terms.) That gives us 35 clerks, 19 clerking for "conservative" justices and 16 for "liberal" justices.
For those still in private practice, 11 are from "conservative" justices (same as last year), and 7 from "liberal" justices (up from 3), good for 18 placements.
For academia, the interest is down dramatically from the 14 placements last year--there are just 3 in academia from OT2004: two from Breyer, one from Kennedy, two of them at Ivies.
In government/public interest, the total is 7 from "conservatives" (up from 3) and 7 from "liberals" (up from 4).
Is there an inertia to clerk classes? Is there a reason that government employees basically doubled between the OT2003 and OT2004 classes, while those entering academia plummeted 80%? Is comparing anecdata for two years' sets of clerks worth much more than a few minutes of baseless Internet speculation? Rest easy--it is certainly little more than that.