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SUPREME COURT CLERKSHIP PLACEMENT, 2000 THROUGH 2010 TERMS December 1, 2010 This study covers the 2000 through 2010 terms (the 2000-2007 results are here), and reports the total number of clerks hired from each law school by a justice of the Court. Because of the small number of clerks chosen in a given year; because clerks are only chosen from the very top of any law school’s class; because current clerks participate in the process of selecting new clerks; and because the Justices themselves have particular school loyalties, gross numbers are probably more informative, and so the ranking below is based on the total number of clerks placed on the Supreme Court. The class size (rounded to the nearest 25) is taken from the most recent
ABA
guide data on matriculating students. This is misleading in one important respect, since class size may have been different over the period of time during which the clerks were selected. The total number of clerks divided by recent class size is not a measure of the likelihood of getting a Supreme Court clerkship, but rather some indication of the relative success of schools in placing graduates as Supreme Court clerks taking into account their size. The changes in rank from the 1991-2005 inclusive ranking of placement in Supreme Court clerkships give some indication of which schools are becoming more successful, and which less successful, at placing their graduates in these highly competitive (though also increasingly politicized) positions.
Justice Stevens, for example, taught at Northwestern, and often hired Northwestern clerks; the same is true for Justice Breyer and Harvard; Justice Ginsburg and Columbia; and Justice Scalia and Chicago. All the BYU graduates were hired by Justice Alito. Justices Alito and Thomas are more likely to hire from “less elite” law schools, perhaps in part because they hire through conservative legal networks which value “ideological purity” more than pedigree.
Rank
|
School
|
Total number of clerks
|
Recent Class Size (rounded to nearest 25)
|
Total Number of Clerks Divided by Recent Class Size (rounded to three places) (the higher the number, the better the success rate)
|
Rank Based on Total 1991-2005 Clerkships
|
1
|
Harvard
University
|
101
|
550
|
.18
|
1
|
2
|
Yale
University
|
83
|
200
|
.42
|
2
|
3
|
University
of
Chicago
|
33
|
200
|
.17
|
3
|
4
|
Stanford
University
|
28
|
175
|
.16
|
4
|
5
|
Columbia
University
|
20
|
375
|
.05
|
5
|
|
University
of
Virginia
|
20
|
375
|
.05
|
7
|
7
|
New York
University
|
17
|
450
|
.04
|
8
|
8
|
University
of
Michigan
,
Ann Arbor
|
13
|
375
|
.04
|
6
|
9
|
University
of
California
, Berkeley
|
11
|
275
|
.04
|
9
|
10
|
Georgetown
University
|
7
|
575
|
.01
|
12
|
|
Northwestern University
|
7
|
250
|
.03
|
11
|
12
|
University of
Texas
,
Austin
|
6
|
450
|
.01
|
10
|
13
|
Duke
University
|
5
|
200
|
.03
|
12
|
|
George
Washington
University
|
5
|
525
|
.01
|
15
|
|
University
of
Notre
Dame
|
5
|
175
|
.03
|
14
|
16
|
University
of
Georgia
|
4
|
200
|
.02
|
23
|
17
|
Brigham
Young
University
|
3
|
150
|
.02
|
18
|
|
University
of
Kansas
|
3
|
150
|
.02
|
18
|
|
University
of
Pennsylvania
|
3
|
250
|
.01
|
15
|
20
|
Cornell University
|
2
|
200
|
.01
|
23
|
|
University
of
Illinois
, Urbana-Champaign
|
2
|
200
|
.01
|
21
|
|
Vanderbilt University
|
2
|
200
|
.01
|
18
|
The following schools each graduated one student who secured a U.S. Supreme Court clerkship between 2000 and 2010: Boston College; Cardozo Law School/Yeshiva University; Creighton University; George Mason University; Ohio State University; Pepperdine University; Rutgers University, Camden; Seton Hall University; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; University of Missouri, Columbia; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; University of Utah; University of Wisconsin, Madison. |
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