Law Commons^™

Law Clerks And The Institutional Design Of The Federal Judiciary, Albert Yoon

Marquette Law Review

This Essay highlights the evolving institutional changes in the federal judiciary—a protracted confirmation process, higher caseload demands, and declining real salaries—in concurrence with evidence suggesting greater reliance by judges on their law clerks when writing opinions. These dynamic forces arguably undermine the integrity of the judicial process and counsel for legislative action to address judicial working conditions or for changes by judges in the hiring of law clerks.

Bonus Babies Escape Golden Handcuffs: How Money And Politics Has Transformed The Career Paths Of Supreme Court Law Clerks, Artemus Ward, Christina Dwyer, Kiranjit Gill

Marquette Law Review

Job prospects for former Supreme Court law clerks have radically changed in recent years. Beginning in 1986, skyrocketing law firm signing bonuses caused a transformation from the natural sorting system, where clerks chose among private practice, government, academic, and public interest positions, to a Bonus Baby Regime where former clerks almost always choose to work in private firms after they leave the Court. This development is a result of both financial and ideological factors. While the more conservative clerking corps of recent years has been increasingly drawn to private practice, the firms themselves hire along ideological lines. Still, while former …

Supreme Court Clerks As Judicial Actors And As Sources, Scott Armstrong

Marquette Law Review

none

Introduction: Judicial Assistants Or Junior Judges: The Hiring, Utilization, And Influence Of Law Clerks, Chad Oldfather, Todd C. Peppers

Marquette Law Review

none

A Truth About Career Law Clerks, Joseph D. Kearney

Marquette Law Review

None.

Advice From The Bench (Memo): Clerk Influence On Supreme Court Oral Arguments, Timothy R. Johnson, David R. Stras, Ryan C. Black

Marquette Law Review

Scholars of the U.S. Supreme Court have long debated the role, and possible influence, of clerks on the decisions their Justices make. In this Paper, we take a novel approach to analyze this phenomenon. We utilize pre-oral argument bench memos sent to Justice Harry A. Blackmun from his clerks. Specifically, we use these memos to determine whether Justice Blackmun asked questions of counsel that were recommended by his clerks in the memos. Our data indicate Justice Blackmun often followed his clerks’ advice. Accordingly, we provide another important link to demonstrate Supreme Court clerks can and do affect how their Justices …

The World Of Law Clerks: Tasks, Utilization, Reliance, And Influence, Stephen L. Wasby

Marquette Law Review

This Article is an examination of the work of judges’ law clerks, based on a variety of materials. It begins with consideration of who is a law clerk and of the role of staff attorneys and judges’ secretaries. Clerks’ tasks are examined next, with attention to the preparation of bench memoranda and judges’ delegation of work to their clerks. Aspects of clerks’ influence and the related matter of judges’ reliance on them is then presented, including attention to law clerks’ recommendations to their judges.

Keynote Address: Secret Agents: Using Law Clerks Effectively, David R. Stras

Marquette Law Review

Recent scholarship discusses the role of law clerks and their role in influencing the courts on which they work. This Keynote Address discusses the nuts and bolts of law clerks, including how they are selected, what role they play on various courts, and their potential opportunities for influence.

The Future Of Federal Law Clerk Hiring, Aaron L. Nielson

Marquette Law Review

The market for federal law clerks has been upended. Beginning in 2003, the Federal Judges Law Clerk Hiring Plan was implemented to regulate clerkship hiring. According to the Plan, a judge could not interview or hire a potential law clerk before the beginning of the applicant’s third year of law school. The Plan, however, never worked well, constantly got worse, and has now officially collapsed. Across the country, clerkship hiring once again regularly occurs during the second year of law school.

This Article addresses the rise and inevitable fall of the Plan. In particular, it submits that the Plan never …

Fielding An Excellent Team: Law Clerk Selection And Chambers Structure At The U.S. Supreme Court, Christopher D. Kromphardt

Marquette Law Review

Supreme Court Justices exercise wide discretion when hiring law clerks. The Justices are constrained only by the pool of qualified applicants and by norms of the institution, such as that beginning with Chief Justice Burger’s tenure in 1969 90% of clerks have previously served a clerkship with a federal judge. Previous work finds that ideology structures hiring decisions at the individual clerk level; however, these analyses fail to account for the fact that a Justice hires several clerks each Term—he seeks a winning team, not just a single all-star. Hiring decisions are structuring decisions in which one of a Justice’s …

Surgeons Or Scribes? The Role Of United States Court Of Appeals Law Clerks In "Appellate Triage", Todd C. Peppers, Micheal W. Giles, Bridget Tainer-Parkins

Marquette Law Review

none

Hiring Supreme Court Law Clerks: Probing The Ideological Linkage Between Judges And Justices, Lawrence Baum

Marquette Law Review

Since the 1970s, the overwhelming majority of Supreme Court law clerks have had prior experience clerking in lower courts, primarily the federal courts of appeals. Throughout that period, there has been a tendency for Justices to take clerks from lower court judges who share the Justices’ ideological tendencies, in what can be called an ideological linkage between judges and Justices in the selection of law clerks. However, that tendency became considerably stronger between the 1970s and 1990s, and it has remained very strong since the 1990s.

This Article probes the sources of that alteration in the Justices’ selection of law …

Panel Discussion: Judges' Perspectives On Law Clerk Hiring, Utilization, And Influence, David R. Stras, Diane S. Sykes, James A. Wynn Jr.

Marquette Law Review

none

Law Clerks As Advisors: A Look At The Blackmun Papers, Zachary Wallander, Sara C. Benesh

Marquette Law Review

The Justices of the United States Supreme Court seek advice, by way of cert pool memos, when making their consequential agenda-setting decisions. There is some debate over the extent to which these law clerks actually influence the Justices. Focusing on the certiorari stage and on the information and advice provided to the Court via the cert pool memos, we ascertain the extent to which the contents of the memos drive the decision making of the Court. We find that information about conflict, amici, and the position of the United States does indeed influence the Court’s votes, but also that the …

Taking A Dip In The Supreme Court Clerk Pool: Gender-Based Discrepancies In Clerk Selection, John J. Szmer, Erin B. Kaheny, Robert K. Christensen

Marquette Law Review

Former U.S. Supreme Court clerks are heavily recruited by select law firms, and many eventually find their way to policy “elite” positions in the government or in the legal academy. A number of former clerks have returned to the Court as litigators, and a subset has returned to the Court as Justices. We are interested in clerk selection for two reasons. First, clerks influence key aspects of the judicial process while serving in their clerkship capacity, and second, many seem to be in a good position to influence legal policy well after their clerkships have ended. With this in mind, …

Diversity And Supreme Court Law Clerks, Tony Mauro

Marquette Law Review

none

Justice Brennan And His Law Clerks, Stephen Wermiel

Marquette Law Review

none