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Mad Hatter wrote:If you have even a remote shot at a Supreme Court clerkship, your school will let you know who the feeders are.

Again, not as true as you might think. I won't post it again, but the post immediately above you explains why. In a word: when a school does not regularly send clerks to SCOTUS, there is a lack of institutional knowledge about the proper path. Professors at those schools are not used to advising students about the path to SCOTUS, because students rarely are qualified. But that doesn't mean no student ever is.

Anonymous User wrote:Depends what school you go to. If you are at HYS or another school that regularly sends clerks to SCOTUS, sure. But if you are the #1 kid at a school that maybe sends a SCOTUS clerk every decade (or less), there is much less institutional knowledge about these things. But that doesn't mean you're not qualified.

True. Call me cynical, but I tend to assume that if you're not at the usual schools, you're really not that qualified, since SCOTUS justices are so pedigree-conscious* (not that you're not as talented; just that you're more likely to be passed over based on pedigree). That said, my school is low-ranked enough that I'm sure I miss out on the fine distinctions higher in the ranks. In any case, I really didn't mean it as a comment on your abilities at all, just on the uber-competitiveness (and elitism) of the position, so I'm sorry if it came across differently.

*Except Thomas, god love him, and if that was my only shot at SCOTUS I'd clerk for him in a heartbeat, but let's just say it's a good thing it's never going to be an option.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Depends what school you go to. If you are at HYS or another school that regularly sends clerks to SCOTUS, sure. But if you are the #1 kid at a school that maybe sends a SCOTUS clerk every decade (or less), there is much less institutional knowledge about these things. But that doesn't mean you're not qualified.

True. Call me cynical, but I tend to assume that if you're not at the usual schools, you're really not *that* qualified, since SCOTUS justices are so pedigree-conscious* (not that you're not as talented; just that you're more likely than not to be passed over based on pedigree). That said, my school is low-ranked enough that I'm sure I miss out on the fine distinctions higher in the ranks. In any case, I really didn't mean it as a comment on your abilities at all, just on the uber-competitiveness (and elitism) of the position, so I'm sorry if it came across differently.

*Except Thomas, god love him, and if that was my only shot at SCOTUS I'd clerk for him in a heartbeat, but let's just say it's a good thing it's never going to be an option.

I'm not personally offended at all. But nearly every OT there is a clerk or two from a random school (and not all Thomas clerks).

EG:
1. Mark Taticchi (GW 2010 / Ikuta)
4. Ryan Watson (GW 2007 / J. Brown)
1. Eduardo Bruera (Cornell 2011 / C. King (5th Cir.))

Trust me, it is not easy to get the right information re SCOTUS if you are the best student at GW.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm not personally offended at all. But nearly every OT there is a clerk or two from a random school (and not all Thomas clerks).

EG:
1. Mark Taticchi (GW 2010 / Ikuta)
4. Ryan Watson (GW 2007 / J. Brown)
1. Eduardo Bruera (Cornell 2011 / C. King (5th Cir.))

Trust me, it is not easy to get the right information re SCOTUS if you are the best student at GW.

I'll take your word for it. (The closest my law school has ever come to SCOTUS is that a past justice attended undergrad there many many years ago.) (Oh, apart from the usual handful of ex-clerk profs.)

Mad Hatter wrote:If you have even a remote shot at a Supreme Court clerkship, your school will let you know who the feeders are.

Yep. They will pull you out of class and hand you a list of feeder judges...

At ND, we've had one SCOTUS clerk every 3-4 years the past 12 years, and professors here are well versed on trying to get our top kids to the right feeders.

ph14 wrote:

Mad Hatter wrote:If you have even a remote shot at a Supreme Court clerkship, your school will let you know who the feeders are.

Yep. They will pull you out of class and hand you a list of feeder judges...

Okay, I realize that scenario is silly, but if students here can compile a list of which judges in the last (however many) years have sent the most clerks on to SCOTUS based on information publicly available on the internet, can't clerkship committees reproduce that list pretty easily?

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

ph14 wrote:

Mad Hatter wrote:If you have even a remote shot at a Supreme Court clerkship, your school will let you know who the feeders are.

Yep. They will pull you out of class and hand you a list of feeder judges...

Okay, I realize that scenario is silly, but if students here can compile a list of which judges in the last (however many) years have sent the most clerks on to SCOTUS based on information publicly available on the internet, can't clerkship committees reproduce that list pretty easily?

I'm more commenting on the idea that if you have feeder credentials the school will bend over backwards to help you. At least at my school that isn't an accurate statement.

ph14 wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

ph14 wrote:

Mad Hatter wrote:If you have even a remote shot at a Supreme Court clerkship, your school will let you know who the feeders are.

Yep. They will pull you out of class and hand you a list of feeder judges...

Okay, I realize that scenario is silly, but if students here can compile a list of which judges in the last (however many) years have sent the most clerks on to SCOTUS based on information publicly available on the internet, can't clerkship committees reproduce that list pretty easily?

I'm more commenting on the idea that if you have feeder credentials the school will bend over backwards to help you. At least at my school that isn't an accurate statement.

Because at HLS there are too many. At T25s, it is two or three kids in a class at most. Professors know who they are (at least here). So the scenario is not that far off.

ndirish2010 wrote:

ph14 wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

ph14 wrote:
Yep. They will pull you out of class and hand you a list of feeder judges...

Okay, I realize that scenario is silly, but if students here can compile a list of which judges in the last (however many) years have sent the most clerks on to SCOTUS based on information publicly available on the internet, can't clerkship committees reproduce that list pretty easily?

I'm more commenting on the idea that if you have feeder credentials the school will bend over backwards to help you. At least at my school that isn't an accurate statement.

Because at HLS there are too many. At T25s, it is two or three kids in a class at most. Professors know who they are (at least here). So the scenario is not that far off.

Ah I see. Makes sense.

ph14 wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

ph14 wrote:

Mad Hatter wrote:If you have even a remote shot at a Supreme Court clerkship, your school will let you know who the feeders are.

Yep. They will pull you out of class and hand you a list of feeder judges...

Okay, I realize that scenario is silly, but if students here can compile a list of which judges in the last (however many) years have sent the most clerks on to SCOTUS based on information publicly available on the internet, can't clerkship committees reproduce that list pretty easily?

I'm more commenting on the idea that if you have feeder credentials the school will bend over backwards to help you. At least at my school that isn't an accurate statement.

TBF, it's probably easier to bend over backward to help feeder-credentialed students somewhere there aren't as *many* of them as at your school. [edit: or what ndirish said]

I think all I meant to imply was that SCOTUS hiring is so much about who knows whom and who's going to make calls and connections and so on, that a lot of the standard application advice doesn't really apply (you have to be really really really good, but you also have to be in a position to take advantage of being really really good - which I understood as being more about individual profs reaching out than about the school as an institution being especially helpful, and not always something the individual student can control).

But again, this is an outsider's view, so it's just what I've picked up from reading around the subject (which I do quite a bit because the only thing I regret about my particular law school path is that I never even had the chance to pretend I could apply for SCOTUS). I'll shut up now.

I'm at a school like GW that should be in the range for SCOTUS every once in a while, but we completely lack the above-referenced institutional knowledge. It's very frustrating.

TatteredDignity wrote:I'm at a school like GW that should be in the range for SCOTUS every once in a while, but we completely lack the above-referenced institutional knowledge. It's very frustrating.

This. I am at a similar school and am that student who should be in the range of SCOTUS if the stars align properly, and I had to hunt down the information and the right people.

Anonymous User wrote:

TatteredDignity wrote:I'm at a school like GW that should be in the range for SCOTUS every once in a while, but we completely lack the above-referenced institutional knowledge. It's very frustrating.

This. I am at a similar school and am that student who should be in the range of SCOTUS if the stars align properly, and I had to hunt down the information and the right people.

You have to hunt down information too at HLS. Perhaps it might be easier, but it's not as if this information is easy to get in general.

Anonymous User wrote:

TatteredDignity wrote:I'm at a school like GW that should be in the range for SCOTUS every once in a while, but we completely lack the above-referenced institutional knowledge. It's very frustrating.

This. I am at a similar school and am that student who should be in the range of SCOTUS if the stars align properly, and I had to hunt down the information and the right people.

I'm happy that you at least found the information. Good luck to you!

Mad Hatter wrote:If you have even a remote shot at a Supreme Court clerkship, your school will let you know who the feeders are.

This is, from personal experience, false.

I don't see why people in this thread are intent on speaking about this topic in such absolutist terms. Have you attended every law school? No? Then your statement just might not be right.

Not every law school does things the same way. It may be that the grand majority of schools that send clerks to SCOTUS have systems that allow their most promising students to avoid resorting to TLS to identify feeder judges.

But that is surely not the case at every school. This is one reason we created this forum -- to help level the playing field, even if ever so slightly, for clerkship applicants coming from schools without the same degree of institutional knowledge of the highest-placing schools.

Not everyone has the same information. That is THE story of the clerkship application game. People can say whatever they want in these threads, but I would hope that this new forum can be more about sharing information than about bickering over what everyone *should* already know.

I've heard rumors that some of the senior judges on the list (Randolph, Ginsburg) might no longer be accepting clerks -- just out of the game entirely. Has anyone heard this? Is the only way to confirm by calling chambers?

Anonymous User wrote:I've heard rumors that some of the senior judges on the list (Randolph, Ginsburg) might no longer be accepting clerks -- just out of the game entirely. Has anyone heard this? Is the only way to confirm by calling chambers?

I know Judge Ginsburg hired a clerk for 2014 but that was a few months ago.

Judge Pryor on the Eleventh has fed 2 clerks in the last three terms (Thomas, Alito) and he's young. Good chance that he'll become a reliable feeder I think. And Judge Ikuta on the Ninth just sent her first law clerk to the Court (Kennedy).

Anonymous User wrote:Judge Pryor on the Eleventh has fed 2 clerks in the last three terms (Thomas, Alito) and he's young. Good chance that he'll become a reliable feeder I think. And Judge Ikuta on the Ninth just sent her first law clerk to the Court (Kennedy).

Don't know much about Pryor so can't say. The conservative feeder path is already pretty loaded (Kavanaugh, Wilkinson, Sutton, Kethledge, Gorsuch, O'Scannlain, Kozinski), so there's not a ton of room but who knows. I could see Ikuta emerging as a semi-feeder though. There's a real dearth of liberal feeders right now (Tatel, Katzmann, Fletcher is pretty much it) so there's a window there. General sense is Watford is more likely to become the stronger feeder out of the 9th, but Ikuta could be the type that sends one every year or two. Also in terms of 'up-and-coming' feeders to watch out for, if either Caitlin Halligan or Sri Srinivasan is confirmed to the DC Circuit, both are likely to feed to some degree.

.

If Chris Christie were a judge, he would definitely be a feeder judge.

Biglaw_Associate_V20 wrote:If Chris Christie were a judge, he would definitely be a feeder judge.

180.

Anonymous User wrote:Here's a list tallying S. Ct. clerks from OT 2009 - present (i.e., including OT 2013 and 2014 to-date, according to Above the Law). To a prior poster's point, this doesn't quite capture "momentum"--particularly, the momentum of Judge Griffith, who has sent six to the Court in OTs 2011 and 2012 alone. These figures include the retired Justices.

1. Garland (D.C. Cir.), 20
2. Kavanaugh (D.C. Cir.), 17
3. Wilkinson (4th Cir.), 13
4. Kozinski (9th Cir.), 10
4. Sutton (6th Cir.), 10
6. Katzmann (2d Cir.), 9
7. Tatel (D.C. Cir.), 8
8. Griffith (D.C. Cir.), 7
9. D. Ginsburg (D.C. Cir.), 6
9. Gorsuch (10th Cir.), 6
9. O'Scannlain (9th Cir.), 6
9. Reinhardt (9th Cir.), 6
13. Calabresi (2d Cir.), 5
13. Fletcher (9th Cir.), 5
13. Posner (7th Cir.), 5
16. Boudin (1st Cir.), 4
16. J.R. Brown (D.C. Cir.), 4
16. Randolph (D.C. Cir.), 4
19. E. Jones (5th Cir.), 3
19. Sentelle (D.C. Cir.), 3
19. S. Williams (D.C. Cir.), 3

Any judges that perhaps just missed being on this list?