January, 22, 2007

Of the 37 law school graduates who are serving as clerks to the U.S. Supreme Court justices in the 2006-07 term, 11 come from Harvard Law School — the highest number from a single law school this year, and one of the largest contingents in HLS history, matched only by the 11 HLS graduates who held clerkships in the year 2000.

This term’s Supreme Court clerks are George W. Hicks ’05 and Paul J. Nathanson ’04, both clerking for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. ’79; Lauren D. Sudeall ’05, clerking for Justice John Paul Stevens; Hashim M. Mooppan ’05, clerking for Justice Antonin Scalia ’60; David W. Foster ’05 and Mark R. Yohalem ’05, clerking for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy ’61; David S. Han ’05, clerking for Justice David Souter ’66; Stephen L. Shackelford, Jr. ’05 and Thiruvendran Vignarajah ’05, clerking for Justice Stephen Breyer ’64; Christopher J. Paolella ’99, clerking for Justice Samuel Alito, Jr.; and Justin Driver ’04, clerking for retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who left the Supreme Court on January 31, 2006.

“There’s always something going on [at the Court],” says Hicks, who compares the Supreme Court to HLS because of its size, scope and the quality of the people. “You’re working with the best in the business, and you have to be versed in so many different areas of the law and be able, on a dime, to switch from criminal procedure to bankruptcy to regulatory interpretation to jurisdiction, with no room for error.”

Hicks also pointed out that, of the eight HLS clerks who graduated in 2005, five had Professor Martha Minow as their section leader. Another 2005 graduate from Minow’s section, Anton Metlitsky, has been offered a clerkship with Chief Justice Roberts for the upcoming 2007-08 term. “We owe it all to Professor Minow,” Hicks added.

“The great privilege of teaching at Harvard Law School is the chance to work with so many amazing students,” Minow said. “I am so proud of our students and glad to see so many going on to be law clerks at the Supreme Court.”

The 2006-07 HLS contingent continues Harvard’s three-year trend of leading other law schools in the number of graduates clerking for the Supreme Court.