What's the best resume/credentials you've seen from a lawyer? Forum

[Anonymous User]

https://www.gibsondunn.com/lawyer/hammer-stephen-j/

Whoa Rhodes scholar + SCOTUS clerk. Nice. Did he not make LR tho? Looks like only fedsoc journal.

Not saying he is one of them (and I don’t know), but within the past decade MANY conservative-leaning students at HLS have not participated in the law review competition at all. Judges know this, and HLR is a much different signal than it used to be. Not trying to start a fight about whether it’s justified, but it absolutely is happening.

Oh interesting, thanks for sharing. I wonder if it's because the HLS + fedsoc + grades (+ in this case extremely unicorn softs) is enough for clerking anyway so why bother.

[The Lsat Airbender]

[+] Spoiler

https://www.ropesgray.com/en/biographies/l/stanford-law

[ExpOriental]

[+] Spoiler

https://www.ropesgray.com/en/biographies/l/stanford-law

Having a hard time accepting that this guy is real and isn't some kind of elaborate Tim & Eric-esque joke

[Anonymous User]

That's like that tennis player named tennys.

[Anonymous User]

https://www.gibsondunn.com/lawyer/hammer-stephen-j/

Whoa Rhodes scholar + SCOTUS clerk. Nice. Did he not make LR tho? Looks like only fedsoc journal.

Not saying he is one of them (and I don’t know), but within the past decade MANY conservative-leaning students at HLS have not participated in the law review competition at all. Judges know this, and HLR is a much different signal than it used to be. Not trying to start a fight about whether it’s justified, but it absolutely is happening.

I had not heard this before. Why don't conservative-leaning students not participate in the law review competition anymore? I think that people generally still view HLR as a signaling factor. I guess erroneously so. When did this start happening?

The criteria for selection changed, and so the signal changed (undermining, btw, the goal of the people who wanted to change the criteria but keep the signal the same). Shocking.

[Anonymous User]

Matt Levine @ Bloomberg, although he’s no longer a practicing attorney.

(Also, can you really call yourself elite if you went to YLS but weren’t a “Coker Fellow”? Full disclosure: I have no idea what that is but it crops up on firm bios from time to time. As far as I can tell from the outside, YLS follows the rule that, “all students are equal but some students are more equal than others.”)

Lol, I don’t want to put anyone’s bio down, but being a Coker Fellow is definitely not a big deal at YLS. It is true that YLS treats some students as being “more equal than others” though.

[Anonymous User]

[+] Spoiler

https://www.ropesgray.com/en/biographies/l/stanford-law

Having a hard time accepting that this guy is real and isn't some kind of elaborate Tim & Eric-esque joke

I've worked across from this guy multiple times. It's really hard to swallow that I just get emails from a lawyer named Stanford Law and have to act like it's normal. (Honestly, I feel a little bad for him that everyone must have this reaction.)

[Anonymous User]

BS, summa cum laude in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Yale
MA, Marshall Scholar, Philosophy, Physiology, and Psychology, Oxford
MD, cum laude with distinction in neuroscience, Harvard Med
JD, Columbia

The one and only Dr. Amy Wax, folks.

[Lacepiece23]

How has no one said Obama?

Harvard law magna
First black editor and chief of Harvard law review
One of a handful of black senators (too lazy to look up)
President

You could throw Bill Clinton up there and he’s a Rhodes scholar.

If you’re talking accomplishments, then obviously it’s Thurgood Marshall.

Won 29/32 SC arguments (something like that)
Brown v Board
Supreme Court justice
Numerous other cool shit to count that doesn’t get mentioned because he’s such a badass that most peoples career accomplishments are an ordinary days work for him.

[Anonymous User]

Bill Clinton is not a lawyer.

[Anon-non-anon]

[+] Spoiler

https://www.ropesgray.com/en/biographies/l/stanford-law

Having a hard time accepting that this guy is real and isn't some kind of elaborate Tim & Eric-esque joke

I've worked across from this guy multiple times. It's really hard to swallow that I just get emails from a lawyer named Stanford Law and have to act like it's normal. (Honestly, I feel a little bad for him that everyone must have this reaction.)

The amount of time it took me to compose myself enough to click "education" to see if he went to Stanford was significant.

[Anonymous User]

Not saying he is one of them (and I don’t know), but within the past decade MANY conservative-leaning students at HLS have not participated in the law review competition at all. Judges know this, and HLR is a much different signal than it used to be. Not trying to start a fight about whether it’s justified, but it absolutely is happening.

I had not heard this before. Why don't conservative-leaning students not participate in the law review competition anymore? I think that people generally still view HLR as a signaling factor. I guess erroneously so. When did this start happening?

The "issue" is that HLR and many other journals at top schools no longer use an objective, fully blind write-on/grade-on system for all applicants. Some reserve a number of positions for grades and/or write-on and then reserve a substantial bloc (sometimes ~40-50%) for a holistic, black-box evaluation system that expressly incorporates demographic information (HLR's website states this, for example). Thus, signaling value goes down, rightly or wrongly. And if the value goes down, and most top journals are admittedly not super receptive to conservative law students and conservative scholarship more generally, there is little reason to do a lot of work for much less (perceived) payoff.

Most of the more conservative judges/clerks I know (or have heard secondhand from) have prioritized grades and writing sample over law review membership for that reason--a belief that the process no longer really signals anything. And given that it is questionable to what extent doing journal work itself signals anything, membership in the journal means less overall.

In the interest of not derailing, perhaps further questions/comments on this should be part of a new thread.

[Anon-non-anon]

Taft:

Yale undergrad
University of Cinci LLB (strange but whatever)
Solicitor General
6th Circuit Judge
Governor of Philippians
Governor of Cuba
Secretary of War (now Defense)
President
Chief Justice of Supreme Court

[ExpOriental]

BS, summa cum laude in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Yale
MA, Marshall Scholar, Philosophy, Physiology, and Psychology, Oxford
MD, cum laude with distinction in neuroscience, Harvard Med
JD, Columbia

The one and only Dr. Amy Wax, folks.

Proving, once and for all, the racial supremacy of the Moria goblin

[Anonymous User]

https://www.dlapiper.com/en/us/people/t/tobey-daniel/

https://us.macmillan.com/author/dannytobey

[Anonymous User]

Collecting a bunch of degrees, even doctorates, is not impressive.

Anonymous, CPA, Esq., M.B.A., JD, LL.M.

[Anonymous User]

Found this Kevin Schwartz guy that's a Partner at Wachtell.

SCOTUS Clerkship - Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Yale Law School (J.D., 2006)
Oxford University (Ph.D., 2006)
Oxford University (M.B.A., 2002), with Distinction, Marshall Scholar
Harvard University (B.A., 2001), summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Sophia Freund Prize for Top-Ranked summa cum laude Graduate in Harvard College

A bit amusing how you left out the Calabresi clerkship from his list of credentials

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

This is the only answer even approaching correct.

The answer is Thomas Jefferson, or Nelson Mandela, or Gandhi.

LOL at anyone picking some random V20 partner or professor.

The assignment was not "who was wildly successful despite a mediocre background".

What, Wachtell is a resume item but POTUS doesn't count?

Literal global icons who change the course of history forever don't quite stack up to some Torts prof at Cornell?

[forsanethaec]

University of Colorado: Valedictorian, All-American Halfback, Heisman Trophy Runner-Up

Rhodes Scholar

Deferred Rhodes Scholarship to play professional football (drafted fourth overall in ‘38 NFL draft by Pittsburgh); led NFL in rushing yards as a rookie

Yale Law School: played for the Detroit Lions for two seasons while in law school, led league in rushing again in 1940

Entered the US Navy in 1942 (ending NFL career and delaying law school completion); naval intelligence officer in Pacific, wrote the intel report on sinking of the PT-109, two bronze stars

Returned to YLS and graduated first in class

SCOTUS clerk to Chief Justice Vinson

Private Practice in Colorado

Deputy AG in Kennedy Justice Department

SCOTUS Justice for 31 years

Byron “Whizzer” White

[Jchance]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Posner

A lot of SCOTUS justices have similarly glowing credentials.

[Anonymous User]

[+] Spoiler

https://www.ropesgray.com/en/biographies/l/stanford-law

Having a hard time accepting that this guy is real and isn't some kind of elaborate Tim & Eric-esque joke

I've worked across from this guy multiple times. It's really hard to swallow that I just get emails from a lawyer named Stanford Law and have to act like it's normal. (Honestly, I feel a little bad for him that everyone must have this reaction.)

There's also a partner at Ropes named Rich Kidd.

[Anonymous User]

Probably Byron White

But of younger practitioners the new Principal Deputy SG Brian Fletcher has basically won everything he’s ever attempted since high school (in which he “only” came second in the TOC)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_F ... (attorney)

If you Google around Stephen Hammer, who indeed has an insane resume, also featured in the fundamentalist Christian lifestyle blogosphere when he was younger which is interesting

[Sackboy]

Probably Byron White

But of younger practitioners the new Principal Deputy SG Brian Fletcher has basically won everything he’s ever attempted since high school (in which he “only” came second in the TOC)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_F ... (attorney)

If you Google around Stephen Hammer, who indeed has an insane resume, also featured in the fundamentalist Christian lifestyle blogosphere when he was younger which is interesting

Of course he went to Valley lol. Very winning resume, though.

[Anonymous User]

Any relation to Josh?

[Anonymous User]

none of these goody-two-shoes can hold a candle to this guy: https://www.kwklaw.net/albert-watkins