Several BigLaw Lawyers Win Supreme Court Clerkships

Several lawyers big BigLaw backgrounds are leaving their firms for the lure of a U.S. Supreme Court clerkship.

Law clerks working for U.S. Supreme Court justices this term have worked for law firms such as Williams & Connolly; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and Kirkland & Ellis, the Washingtonian reports at its Capital Comment Blog.

One of them is Elizabeth Papez, who made partner at Kirkland in 2005 and most recently served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. She is working for Justice Clarence Thomas.

Above the Law highlights another BigLaw refugee, associate Pamela Bookman of WilmerHale, who got married this summer and began work for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Out of 34 clerks hired so far (Sotomayor will be hiring three more), nine went to Yale and eight to Harvard, according to the Washingtonian story. The top feeder judge on Above the Law’s April 15 clerkship list was J. Harvie Wilkinson of the Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; four of his former clerks are working at the U.S. Supreme Court.