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

[Anonymous User]

the answer is objectively Byron White

selected in first round of the nfl draft

booked everything in 1L at YLS

fucked off from YLS to go play in the nfl (led the league in rushing btw), is a HOFer

goes to fight in ww2, does something actually interesting and gets a decent rank

comes back, finds a loving spouse and raises a decent family

rejoins YLS, graduates valedictorian and decides to just do law in his hometown rather than be a striver in MANHATTAN working for Robert Swaine

becomes tight with JFK, gets the nod to SCOTUS

unless wayne gretzkey literally graduates top of his class at YLS and then is chief justice or something, you can't top that

[The Lsat Airbender]

the answer is objectively Byron White

selected in first round of the nfl draft

booked everything in 1L at YLS

fucked off from YLS to go play in the nfl (led the league in rushing btw), is a HOFer

goes to fight in ww2, does something actually interesting and gets a decent rank

comes back, finds a loving spouse and raises a decent family

rejoins YLS, graduates valedictorian and decides to just do law in his hometown rather than be a striver in MANHATTAN working for Robert Swaine

becomes tight with JFK, gets the nod to SCOTUS

unless wayne gretzkey literally graduates top of his class at YLS and then is chief justice or something, you can't top that

You neglected to mention his Rhodes scholarship and also are missing the coolest part of his Wikipedia bio:

In a 2000 interview, White said that he was supposed to enroll at Harvard Law School, but got sick on the train ride there, so he got off the train in New Haven, Connecticut and went to Yale.

[Anonymous User]

the answer is objectively Byron White

selected in first round of the nfl draft

booked everything in 1L at YLS

fucked off from YLS to go play in the nfl (led the league in rushing btw), is a HOFer

goes to fight in ww2, does something actually interesting and gets a decent rank

comes back, finds a loving spouse and raises a decent family

rejoins YLS, graduates valedictorian and decides to just do law in his hometown rather than be a striver in MANHATTAN working for Robert Swaine

becomes tight with JFK, gets the nod to SCOTUS

unless wayne gretzkey literally graduates top of his class at YLS and then is chief justice or something, you can't top that

You neglected to mention his Rhodes scholarship and also are missing the coolest part of his Wikipedia bio:

In a 2000 interview, White said that he was supposed to enroll at Harvard Law School, but got sick on the train ride there, so he got off the train in New Haven, Connecticut and went to Yale.

Speaking of White, the biography one of his clerks wrote about him was quite good. I believe it's titled "The Man Who Once Was Wizzer White."

[Anonymous User]

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

This dude's Google results are full of religious fundamentalist mommy blogger forums?

[Anonymous User]

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

This dude's Google results are full of religious fundamentalist mommy blogger forums?

Those forum inhabitants sound like crazed stalkers.

[Anonymous User]

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

This dude's Google results are full of religious fundamentalist mommy blogger forums?

Those forum inhabitants sound like crazed stalkers.

I don't know what I expected from people who critically read religious mommy blogs as a hobby, but yeah they're bizarre. It seems like she stopped blogging a decade ago and they're still following her?

[AussieJoe]

The incoming Chief Justice of New South Wales, Australia

First in Year, undergraduate law and arts degrees, Syd Uni.
Rhodes Scholar
Vinerian Scholar, BCL
DPhil
Clerk to Chief Justice of Australian Apex Court
Barrister, many high profile cases
Senior Counsel, many high profile cases
President, New South Wales Court of Appeal
Chief Justice of New South Wales

Aged, 55 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bell_(judge)

[FF2020]

The incoming Chief Justice of New South Wales, Australia

First in Year, undergraduate law and arts degrees, Syd Uni.
Rhodes Scholar
Vinerian Scholar, BCL
DPhil
Clerk to Chief Justice of Australian Apex Court
Barrister, many high profile cases
Senior Counsel, many high profile cases
President, New South Wales Court of Appeal
Chief Justice of New South Wales

Aged, 55 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bell_(judge)

James Edelman: three degrees by 23; Rhodes Scholar; Distinction on BCL; DPhil; Professor at Oxford by 35; several books and articles published; judge on Australia’s Apex Court at 43.

Malcolm Turnbull: Rhodes Scholar; GC to a big media company; sets up own law firm, then his own investment bank, before becoming an MD at Goldman Sachs; turns a $500k investment into a $57 million sale; becomes (another short-lived) Prime Minister of Australia.

Other lawyers outside the US include Jonathan Sumption (historian who writes books on the Hundred Years’ War, barrister to Russian oligarchs and public inquiries, reviews books for the Spectator and sits on music foundation boards, directly elevated to the UK Supreme Court), Claudia Renton (writer of biographies, actress, barrister at Essex Court Chambers) and Zafar Ansari (all at https://www.blackstonechambers.com/barr ... ar-ansari/; played Cricket for England while killing it academically). I go to the barristers’ pages at all of these sets when I need reminding of how far I am from any shot at greatness in this profession.

Obligatory note that credentials don’t always make the best lawyers. Two of my favorite lawyers of all time barely had a law degree between them, but have probably had more of an impact on the law than people with all the gold plates could imagine.

One’s named Robert Jackson. The other’s Hugo Black.

[Lacepiece23]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

Pretty sure both were mentioned or at least Obama. But neither qualify for this thread and it has nothing to do with race, sorry. Obama....went to Harvard Law? Led HLR? Then had an unremarkable legal career (no clerkships, no awards or whatnot) before politics. Yes, he was president, but Joe Biden is not on the list either. Bill Clinton was at least a Rhodes Scholar.

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer, then a judge, SG, justice. He at least graduated first in class.

Both brilliant people and historic trailblazers and nothing can take that away from them. If anything, success despite not having the fancy resume is even more impressive.

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

Pretty sure both were mentioned or at least Obama. But neither qualify for this thread and it has nothing to do with race, sorry. Obama....went to Harvard Law? Led HLR? Then had an unremarkable legal career (no clerkships, no awards or whatnot) before politics. Yes, he was president, but Joe Biden is not on the list either. Bill Clinton was at least a Rhodes Scholar.

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer, then a judge, SG, justice. He at least graduated first in class.

Both brilliant people and historic trailblazers and nothing can take that away from them. If anything, success despite not having the fancy resume is even more impressive.

Obama graduated magna at HLS, was the first Black HLR president, and started teaching at UChicago on graduation, which is unheard of. He easily could have clerked on SCOTUS but decided that he didn't want to clerk--IIRC Judge Mivka offered him a clerkship without even an interview and Obama said he wasn't interested. And also being a senior lecturer (a faculty position) at Chicago and a partner at one of Chicago's top civil rights firms is hardly "unremarkable"--at least no less unremarkable than Byron White, who was a partner at Davis Graham & Stubbs.

Also, calling Marshall's legal career just being a "lawyer" is a massive understatement.

It's absurd to say that Obama and Marshall aren't in the conversation.

[FF2020]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

The Strict Scrutiny podcast had an episode recently where they pointed out that Kavanaugh didn’t do particularly well at Yale undergrad and most people were surprised when he got into Yale Law, where he was cum laude and not on the Law Journal. (Maybe because he likes beer?)

When Biden says that he’s going to appoint a black woman, though, some of Justice Kavanaugh’s biggest boosters claim there’s no-one of quality and this will hurt the court, making veiled references to Sotomayor. Justice Sotomayor merely graduated summa from Princeton and an editor on the Yale Law Journal - before a pre-judicial career for which many would kill. Ok, she may not have Kagan’s Oxford degree, but unlike Kagan, she went to Yale Law and has actually practiced outside politics. If we’re talking pure credentials, I think she deserves a lot of kudos.

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

Pretty sure both were mentioned or at least Obama. But neither qualify for this thread and it has nothing to do with race, sorry. Obama....went to Harvard Law? Led HLR? Then had an unremarkable legal career (no clerkships, no awards or whatnot) before politics. Yes, he was president, but Joe Biden is not on the list either. Bill Clinton was at least a Rhodes Scholar.

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer, then a judge, SG, justice. He at least graduated first in class.

Both brilliant people and historic trailblazers and nothing can take that away from them. If anything, success despite not having the fancy resume is even more impressive.

Obama graduated magna at HLS, was the first Black HLR president, and started teaching at UChicago on graduation, which is unheard of. He easily could have clerked on SCOTUS but decided that he didn't want to clerk--IIRC Judge Mivka offered him a clerkship without even an interview and Obama said he wasn't interested. And also being a senior lecturer (a faculty position) at Chicago and a partner at one of Chicago's top civil rights firms is hardly "unremarkable"--at least no less unremarkable than Byron White, who was a partner at Davis Graham & Stubbs.

The only thing that impresses me about this list is Magna. Which I believe is top 10%. Solid credentials. He got a fellowship at UofC, which is also really impressive but hardly unprecedented as a young grad, it's literally what the program is for. Here's a random person I found who was a UofC fellow on graduating law school. https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty- ... na-sommers

Coulda woulda shoulda but fact is, he did not clerk. He also was never a partner.

But yeah, overall impressive fellow I'm sure he'll have a good career.

The Byron White example is good one bc his career was wild, simultaneously playing pro football while getting top scores at YLS. The point isn't to determine who is smarter or better, it's just a timesuck fun thread of interesting random / glittery resumes.

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

The Strict Scrutiny podcast had an episode recently where they pointed out that Kavanaugh didn’t do particularly well at Yale undergrad and most people were surprised when he got into Yale Law, where he was cum laude and not on the Law Journal. (Maybe because he likes beer?)

When Biden says that he’s going to appoint a black woman, though, some of Justice Kavanaugh’s biggest boosters claim there’s no-one of quality and this will hurt the court, making veiled references to Sotomayor. Justice Sotomayor merely graduated summa from Princeton and an editor on the Yale Law Journal - before a pre-judicial career for which many would kill. Ok, she may not have Kagan’s Oxford degree, but unlike Kagan, she went to Yale Law and has actually practiced outside politics. If we’re talking pure credentials, I think she deserves a lot of kudos.

A lot going on here, and I'm not sure who you're arguing with but just a quick factual correction - both Soto and Kav were on YLJ. As Yale's grading is really weird, I'm not sure how much we can know about how well each did academically (undergrad she's more impressive, clerkship and early career checkboxes he is).

Imo neither stand out as "best resume you've ever seen"

[Lacepiece23]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

Pretty sure both were mentioned or at least Obama. But neither qualify for this thread and it has nothing to do with race, sorry. Obama....went to Harvard Law? Led HLR? Then had an unremarkable legal career (no clerkships, no awards or whatnot) before politics. Yes, he was president, but Joe Biden is not on the list either. Bill Clinton was at least a Rhodes Scholar.

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer, then a judge, SG, justice. He at least graduated first in class.

Both brilliant people and historic trailblazers and nothing can take that away from them. If anything, success despite not having the fancy resume is even more impressive.

Yeah…mentioned by me. You made my point. Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

Pretty sure both were mentioned or at least Obama. But neither qualify for this thread and it has nothing to do with race, sorry. Obama....went to Harvard Law? Led HLR? Then had an unremarkable legal career (no clerkships, no awards or whatnot) before politics. Yes, he was president, but Joe Biden is not on the list either. Bill Clinton was at least a Rhodes Scholar.

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer, then a judge, SG, justice. He at least graduated first in class.

Both brilliant people and historic trailblazers and nothing can take that away from them. If anything, success despite not having the fancy resume is even more impressive.

Yeah…mentioned by me. You made my point. Thanks.

Oh was that you? My point was that I remembered it vaguely so if I was inclined to think that his resume belongs here (which I don't) I would have thought "yeah but he's already been mentioned" and then not bothered. So "only I mentioned him so everyone else must be racist" falls flat.

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

The Strict Scrutiny podcast had an episode recently where they pointed out that Kavanaugh didn’t do particularly well at Yale undergrad and most people were surprised when he got into Yale Law, where he was cum laude and not on the Law Journal. (Maybe because he likes beer?)

When Biden says that he’s going to appoint a black woman, though, some of Justice Kavanaugh’s biggest boosters claim there’s no-one of quality and this will hurt the court, making veiled references to Sotomayor. Justice Sotomayor merely graduated summa from Princeton and an editor on the Yale Law Journal - before a pre-judicial career for which many would kill. Ok, she may not have Kagan’s Oxford degree, but unlike Kagan, she went to Yale Law and has actually practiced outside politics. If we’re talking pure credentials, I think she deserves a lot of kudos.

Imagine listening to Strict Scrutiny and Ruth Marcus about anything. Although no one even mentioned Kavanaugh originally, or Sotomayor, or the upcoming SCOTUS nominee, at least before Lacepiece came in and accused everyone on a dying thread of racism. Yale Law doesn't have latin honors by the way. Writing this comment, I also just found out Sotomayor got no offered by Paul Weiss, which is hilarious.

Anyway, Obama and Marshall are great examples of why credentialism is not too useful, but not really in the original spirit of the thread, which apparently was to see how many gold stars a young lawyer had managed to rack up.

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

Pretty sure both were mentioned or at least Obama. But neither qualify for this thread and it has nothing to do with race, sorry. Obama....went to Harvard Law? Led HLR? Then had an unremarkable legal career (no clerkships, no awards or whatnot) before politics. Yes, he was president, but Joe Biden is not on the list either. Bill Clinton was at least a Rhodes Scholar.

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer, then a judge, SG, justice. He at least graduated first in class.

Both brilliant people and historic trailblazers and nothing can take that away from them. If anything, success despite not having the fancy resume is even more impressive.

Obama graduated magna at HLS, was the first Black HLR president, and started teaching at UChicago on graduation, which is unheard of. He easily could have clerked on SCOTUS but decided that he didn't want to clerk--IIRC Judge Mivka offered him a clerkship without even an interview and Obama said he wasn't interested. And also being a senior lecturer (a faculty position) at Chicago and a partner at one of Chicago's top civil rights firms is hardly "unremarkable"--at least no less unremarkable than Byron White, who was a partner at Davis Graham & Stubbs.

The only thing that impresses me about this list is Magna. Which I believe is top 10%. Solid credentials. He got a fellowship at UofC, which is also really impressive but hardly unprecedented as a young grad, it's literally what the program is for. Here's a random person I found who was a UofC fellow on graduating law school. https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty- ... na-sommers

Coulda woulda shoulda but fact is, he did not clerk. He also was never a partner.

But yeah, overall impressive fellow I'm sure he'll have a good career.

The Byron White example is good one bc his career was wild, simultaneously playing pro football while getting top scores at YLS. The point isn't to determine who is smarter or better, it's just a timesuck fun thread of interesting random / glittery resumes.

...Obama didn't do the Bigelow (which if you know anything about legal academia, is at least as shiny a gold star as a SCOTUS clerkship anyway, and the person you point out was a JD/PhD, not straight out of law school). He afaik did a sui generis fellowship created for him for one year, then joined the faculty as a lecturer, then a senior lecturer, which is a permanent faculty position (e.g. it's the gig Richard Posner had).

Obama was also of-counsel because he was also on the Chicago faculty, which is, you know, more impressive than being a partner. And then, of course, he became President, which is as glittery as a credential gets.

[FF2020]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

The Strict Scrutiny podcast had an episode recently where they pointed out that Kavanaugh didn’t do particularly well at Yale undergrad and most people were surprised when he got into Yale Law, where he was cum laude and not on the Law Journal. (Maybe because he likes beer?)

When Biden says that he’s going to appoint a black woman, though, some of Justice Kavanaugh’s biggest boosters claim there’s no-one of quality and this will hurt the court, making veiled references to Sotomayor. Justice Sotomayor merely graduated summa from Princeton and an editor on the Yale Law Journal - before a pre-judicial career for which many would kill. Ok, she may not have Kagan’s Oxford degree, but unlike Kagan, she went to Yale Law and has actually practiced outside politics. If we’re talking pure credentials, I think she deserves a lot of kudos.

Imagine listening to Strict Scrutiny and Ruth Marcus about anything. Although no one even mentioned Kavanaugh originally, or Sotomayor, or the upcoming SCOTUS nominee, at least before Lacepiece came in and accused everyone on a dying thread of racism. Yale Law doesn't have latin honors by the way. Writing this comment, I also just found out Sotomayor got no offered by Paul Weiss, which is hilarious.

Anyway, Obama and Marshall are great examples of why credentialism is not too useful, but not really in the original spirit of the thread, which apparently was to see how many gold stars a young lawyer had managed to rack up.

Don’t disagree with any of this. I don’t think omitting Marshall or Obama was racist in the context of this thread. Now thinking it might have been a troll - no-one mentioned RBG either.

My comment was just aimed at the not infrequent suggestion that Sotomayor’s unqualified. (I realize my premises regarding Kavanaugh were wrong and I’m sorry.)

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

The Strict Scrutiny podcast had an episode recently where they pointed out that Kavanaugh didn’t do particularly well at Yale undergrad and most people were surprised when he got into Yale Law, where he was cum laude and not on the Law Journal. (Maybe because he likes beer?)

When Biden says that he’s going to appoint a black woman, though, some of Justice Kavanaugh’s biggest boosters claim there’s no-one of quality and this will hurt the court, making veiled references to Sotomayor. Justice Sotomayor merely graduated summa from Princeton and an editor on the Yale Law Journal - before a pre-judicial career for which many would kill. Ok, she may not have Kagan’s Oxford degree, but unlike Kagan, she went to Yale Law and has actually practiced outside politics. If we’re talking pure credentials, I think she deserves a lot of kudos.

Imagine listening to Strict Scrutiny and Ruth Marcus about anything. Although no one even mentioned Kavanaugh originally, or Sotomayor, or the upcoming SCOTUS nominee, at least before Lacepiece came in and accused everyone on a dying thread of racism. Yale Law doesn't have latin honors by the way. Writing this comment, I also just found out Sotomayor got no offered by Paul Weiss, which is hilarious.

Anyway, Obama and Marshall are great examples of why credentialism is not too useful, but not really in the original spirit of the thread, which apparently was to see how many gold stars a young lawyer had managed to rack up.

Yale undergrad has latin honors, and Kavanaugh only graduated cum laude. He also got his Kozinski clerkship as an emergency fill-in for Alex Azar, who quit, not based on law school grades (his original clerkship wasn't with a feeder). Obviously he's had an extremely successful career, but by all accounts I've seen Kavanaugh was a middling student by YLS standards.

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

Pretty sure both were mentioned or at least Obama. But neither qualify for this thread and it has nothing to do with race, sorry. Obama....went to Harvard Law? Led HLR? Then had an unremarkable legal career (no clerkships, no awards or whatnot) before politics. Yes, he was president, but Joe Biden is not on the list either. Bill Clinton was at least a Rhodes Scholar.

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer, then a judge, SG, justice. He at least graduated first in class.

Both brilliant people and historic trailblazers and nothing can take that away from them. If anything, success despite not having the fancy resume is even more impressive.

Obama graduated magna at HLS, was the first Black HLR president, and started teaching at UChicago on graduation, which is unheard of. He easily could have clerked on SCOTUS but decided that he didn't want to clerk--IIRC Judge Mivka offered him a clerkship without even an interview and Obama said he wasn't interested. And also being a senior lecturer (a faculty position) at Chicago and a partner at one of Chicago's top civil rights firms is hardly "unremarkable"--at least no less unremarkable than Byron White, who was a partner at Davis Graham & Stubbs.

The only thing that impresses me about this list is Magna. Which I believe is top 10%. Solid credentials. He got a fellowship at UofC, which is also really impressive but hardly unprecedented as a young grad, it's literally what the program is for. Here's a random person I found who was a UofC fellow on graduating law school. https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/our-faculty/roseanna-sommers

Coulda woulda shoulda but fact is, he did not clerk. He also was never a partner.

But yeah, overall impressive fellow I'm sure he'll have a good career.

The Byron White example is good one bc his career was wild, simultaneously playing pro football while getting top scores at YLS. The point isn't to determine who is smarter or better, it's just a timesuck fun thread of interesting random / glittery resumes.

...Obama didn't do the Bigelow (which if you know anything about legal academia, is at least as shiny a gold star as a SCOTUS clerkship anyway, and the person you point out was a JD/PhD, not straight out of law school). He afaik did a sui generis fellowship created for him for one year, then joined the faculty as a lecturer, then a senior lecturer, which is a permanent faculty position (e.g. it's the gig Richard Posner had).

Obama was also of-counsel because he was also on the Chicago faculty, which is, you know, more impressive than being a partner.

Before you edited, you said he was a lecturer straight out of law school. Wikipedia says he had a law and government fellowship which I can't find more information about so I assumed it was equivalent to bigolow. He started teaching a year later.

Willing to accept that of counsel is equivalent to partner, was just correcting the record. My impression was that it coincided with his political career (likely as a practical matter due to being in Springfield half a year) but that's a distinction without a difference.

Overall, yeah impressive fellow, wonder what the future holds for him.

(actually tbh putting together HLR prez, uofc fellowship, magna, elite little firm, author of popular book, conlaw adjunct a year out, state senator... I guess if we saw someone today at 35 with that resume that goes on the list here. So I take that back. But honest disagreement over this does not make one racist.)

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

Pretty sure both were mentioned or at least Obama. But neither qualify for this thread and it has nothing to do with race, sorry. Obama....went to Harvard Law? Led HLR? Then had an unremarkable legal career (no clerkships, no awards or whatnot) before politics. Yes, he was president, but Joe Biden is not on the list either. Bill Clinton was at least a Rhodes Scholar.

Thurgood Marshall was a lawyer, then a judge, SG, justice. He at least graduated first in class.

Both brilliant people and historic trailblazers and nothing can take that away from them. If anything, success despite not having the fancy resume is even more impressive.

Obama graduated magna at HLS, was the first Black HLR president, and started teaching at UChicago on graduation, which is unheard of. He easily could have clerked on SCOTUS but decided that he didn't want to clerk--IIRC Judge Mivka offered him a clerkship without even an interview and Obama said he wasn't interested. And also being a senior lecturer (a faculty position) at Chicago and a partner at one of Chicago's top civil rights firms is hardly "unremarkable"--at least no less unremarkable than Byron White, who was a partner at Davis Graham & Stubbs.

The only thing that impresses me about this list is Magna. Which I believe is top 10%. Solid credentials. He got a fellowship at UofC, which is also really impressive but hardly unprecedented as a young grad, it's literally what the program is for. Here's a random person I found who was a UofC fellow on graduating law school. https://michigan.law.umich.edu/faculty- ... na-sommers

Coulda woulda shoulda but fact is, he did not clerk. He also was never a partner.

But yeah, overall impressive fellow I'm sure he'll have a good career.

The Byron White example is good one bc his career was wild, simultaneously playing pro football while getting top scores at YLS. The point isn't to determine who is smarter or better, it's just a timesuck fun thread of interesting random / glittery resumes.

...Obama didn't do the Bigelow (which if you know anything about legal academia, is at least as shiny a gold star as a SCOTUS clerkship anyway, and the person you point out was a JD/PhD, not straight out of law school). He afaik did a sui generis fellowship created for him for one year, then joined the faculty as a lecturer, then a senior lecturer, which is a permanent faculty position (e.g. it's the gig Richard Posner had).

Obama was also of-counsel because he was also on the Chicago faculty, which is, you know, more impressive than being a partner. And then, of course, he became President, which is as glittery as a credential gets.

Yeah looking at the timeline I think it's also that he was in the state senate--politics, UChicago, of counsel at a firm, plus young kids, sounds crazy busy.

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

The Strict Scrutiny podcast had an episode recently where they pointed out that Kavanaugh didn’t do particularly well at Yale undergrad and most people were surprised when he got into Yale Law, where he was cum laude and not on the Law Journal. (Maybe because he likes beer?)

When Biden says that he’s going to appoint a black woman, though, some of Justice Kavanaugh’s biggest boosters claim there’s no-one of quality and this will hurt the court, making veiled references to Sotomayor. Justice Sotomayor merely graduated summa from Princeton and an editor on the Yale Law Journal - before a pre-judicial career for which many would kill. Ok, she may not have Kagan’s Oxford degree, but unlike Kagan, she went to Yale Law and has actually practiced outside politics. If we’re talking pure credentials, I think she deserves a lot of kudos.

Imagine listening to Strict Scrutiny and Ruth Marcus about anything. Although no one even mentioned Kavanaugh originally, or Sotomayor, or the upcoming SCOTUS nominee, at least before Lacepiece came in and accused everyone on a dying thread of racism. Yale Law doesn't have latin honors by the way. Writing this comment, I also just found out Sotomayor got no offered by Paul Weiss, which is hilarious.

Anyway, Obama and Marshall are great examples of why credentialism is not too useful, but not really in the original spirit of the thread, which apparently was to see how many gold stars a young lawyer had managed to rack up.

Don’t disagree with any of this. I don’t think omitting Marshall or Obama was racist in the context of this thread. Now thinking it might have been a troll - no-one mentioned RBG either.

My comment was just aimed at the not infrequent suggestion that Sotomayor’s unqualified. (I realize my premises regarding Kavanaugh were wrong and I’m sorry.)

I do agree with you conceptually re Kav, and disclosure I'm fedsoc and never understood why we should care about him. Thoroughly mediocre, unnecessary scandal, should have never been nominated (like so much else, we can blame Anthony Kennedy).

Re Sotomayor, it's a bit awkward. On paper she's super qualified (tho the no offer is kinda weird). But a lot of people do believe in good faith that she's not intellectually up to the rigors of the court. It's not a race or gender thing (well I guess except for the idiot who put his foot in his mouth re Biden's shortlist). It's specific to her. Personally it doesn't bother me bc the history of the court is full of all types and if she's way off base the others won't go along with her. Just pointing out that it's not really helpful to jump to name calling when someone doesn't like your fav.

[Anonymous User]

Love the racism in all these posts that no one else mentioned Barack Obama or Thurgood Mardhall. And yes, I’m not hiding behind anonymous.

The Strict Scrutiny podcast had an episode recently where they pointed out that Kavanaugh didn’t do particularly well at Yale undergrad and most people were surprised when he got into Yale Law, where he was cum laude and not on the Law Journal. (Maybe because he likes beer?)

When Biden says that he’s going to appoint a black woman, though, some of Justice Kavanaugh’s biggest boosters claim there’s no-one of quality and this will hurt the court, making veiled references to Sotomayor. Justice Sotomayor merely graduated summa from Princeton and an editor on the Yale Law Journal - before a pre-judicial career for which many would kill. Ok, she may not have Kagan’s Oxford degree, but unlike Kagan, she went to Yale Law and has actually practiced outside politics. If we’re talking pure credentials, I think she deserves a lot of kudos.

Imagine listening to Strict Scrutiny and Ruth Marcus about anything. Although no one even mentioned Kavanaugh originally, or Sotomayor, or the upcoming SCOTUS nominee, at least before Lacepiece came in and accused everyone on a dying thread of racism. Yale Law doesn't have latin honors by the way. Writing this comment, I also just found out Sotomayor got no offered by Paul Weiss, which is hilarious.

Anyway, Obama and Marshall are great examples of why credentialism is not too useful, but not really in the original spirit of the thread, which apparently was to see how many gold stars a young lawyer had managed to rack up.

Don’t disagree with any of this. I don’t think omitting Marshall or Obama was racist in the context of this thread. Now thinking it might have been a troll - no-one mentioned RBG either.

My comment was just aimed at the not infrequent suggestion that Sotomayor’s unqualified. (I realize my premises regarding Kavanaugh were wrong and I’m sorry.)

I do agree with you conceptually re Kav, and disclosure I'm fedsoc and never understood why we should care about him. Thoroughly mediocre, unnecessary scandal, should have never been nominated (like so much else, we can blame Anthony Kennedy).

Re Sotomayor, it's a bit awkward. On paper she's super qualified (tho the no offer is kinda weird). But a lot of people do believe in good faith that she's not intellectually up to the rigors of the court. It's not a race or gender thing (well I guess except for the idiot who put his foot in his mouth re Biden's shortlist). It's specific to her. Personally it doesn't bother me bc the history of the court is full of all types and if she's way off base the others won't go along with her. Just pointing out that it's not really helpful to jump to name calling when someone doesn't like your fav.

Well I'll throw out it's racist no one has mentioned Clarence Thomas.

[Anonymous User]

Yale undergrad has latin honors, and Kavanaugh only graduated cum laude. He also got his Kozinski clerkship as an emergency fill-in for Alex Azar, who quit, not based on law school grades (his original clerkship wasn't with a feeder). Obviously he's had an extremely successful career, but by all accounts I've seen Kavanaugh was a middling student by YLS standards.

Does anyone know why Azar left Kozinski so quickly? Some say he was fired, others that he quit - one of those things that’s sketchy enough to make me think that there *is* a deep state conspiracy where some secrets are protected and others aren’t. (Perfectly rational to go Luttig in the early ‘90s, but so soon after starting with Kozinski?)