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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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