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.