Yesterday I examined the market for lateral hires. Here, I shift focus to the entry-level hiring landscape. Since 2012, the tally of entry-level hires has fluctuated from the low sixties up to the mid‑hundreds, reaching a high near 140. Professor Sarah Lawsky has meticulously tracked these figures across the years via a set of detailed hiring spreadsheets: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026.
Lawsky monitors how many entry-level hires have completed Supreme Court clerkships. (This category does not include law professors who were already on staff and later took on Supreme Court clerkships.) I thought it worthwhile to probe the numbers a bit further. In addition, to continue my earlier discussion of lateral moves, I wanted to track how frequently former SCOTUS clerks moved to other institutions. You can view the details in this spreadsheet, which follows SCOTUS clerk hires from 2012 through 2026. Please tell me if I have missed any names or if there are errors.
How many academics has each Justice “fed”? Counting proves to be somewhat nuanced, so I made a few judgment calls. If a senior associate Justice hired a clerk who was then assigned to an active member of the Court, I credited the hiring to that Justice. (Still, I did come across at least one law school biography that listed the active justice before the senior judge, which I regarded as an error.) Likewise, for clerks hired toward the end of Justice Scalia’s or Justice Ginsburg’s terms who were later reassigned, I counted them as Scalia or Ginsburg clerks. What about clerks hired by Scalia or Ginsburg for a future term after their passing? In those cases, I attributed them to the active Justice who decided to re-hire them. With all those caveats in place, here is the roster.
- Justice Ginsburg (12 Clerks): Elizabeth Porter, Kate Andrias, Miriam Seifter, Robert Yablon, John Rappaport, Daphna Renan, Pamela Bookman, Hajin Kim, Payvand Ahdout, Rachel Bayefsky, Marco Basile, and Jack Boeglin.
- Justice Breyer (8 Clerks): Jennifer Nou, Rebecca Stone, Natalie Ram, Tejas Narechania, Andrew Crespo, Farah Peterson, Brian Richardson, and Thomas Schmidt.
- Justice Kennedy (7 Clerks): Chris Walker, Lisa Manheim, James Stern, Richard Re, Justin Walker, Daniel Epps, and Leah Litman.
- Justice Thomas (7 Clerks): Marah Stith McLeod, Jennifer Mascott, Robert Leider, Haley Proctor, Steven Lindsay, Brian Lipshutz, and Brittney Lane Kubisch.
- Justice Stevens (6 Clerks): Jean Galbraith, David Pozen, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Sam Erman, Merritt McAlister, and Travis Crum.
- Justice Sotomayor (6 Clerks): Aaron Tang, Michael Pollack, Nikolas Bowie, Kevin Arlyck, Bridget Fahey, and Kamaile Turcan.
- Justice Souter (5 Clerks): Erin Delaney, David Han, Ann Lipton, Matthew Tokson, Mark Jia.
- Chief Justice Roberts (4 Clerks): William Baude, Paul Crane, Matthew A. Shapiro, and Ryan Snyder.
- Justice Alito (4 Clerks): Steven Menashi, J. Joel Alicea, Sherif Girgis, and Garrett West.
- Justice Scalia (3 Clerks): Aditya Bamzai, Ian Samuel, and Katherine Mims Crocker.
- Justice Kagan (3 Clerks): Daniel Hemel, Andrew Crespo, and Benjamin Eidelson.
- Justice Gorsuch (2 Clerks): Lael Weinberger and Micah Quigley.
I have several observations.
First, within this window, it makes sense that Justices Ginsburg and Breyer, both academics, recruited so many clerks who later pursued academia. Yet I was surprised to see Justice Kagan appoint only three future academics. Perhaps her emphasis was not on the kind of scholars who publish articles? Then again, as I’ve noted before, Professor Kagan did not publish extensively. She excelled as an administrator. To borrow John Kerry’s sentiment, “I was for originalism before I was against it.” Who could have predicted that Justice Sotomayor would employ twice as many academic clerks as Justice Kagan? Likewise, Justice Scalia, a former academic, had only three clerks who ended up in academia—only one of whom is conservative. Again, one wonders whether ideological bias prevented many potential Scalia clerks from considering the academy during this period. Justice Thomas has moved ahead in the rankings, but, as I will explain below, most of those placements occurred in the most recent three years.
Second, there are relatively few law professors who have clerked on the Supreme Court. The share of entry-level hires with SCOTUS clerkships fluctuates over time. In 2012, seven clerks were hired out of 140 total hires: about 5%. In 2018, eight clerks were hired out of 77 total hires: nearly 10%. In 2026, four clerks were hired out of 146 total hires: about 3%. The hiring market has shown considerable variability in recent years. Still, the enduring myth that a Supreme Court clerkship is a prerequisite for teaching constitutional law ought to be retired. Very few constitutional-law professors have actually clerked for the Supreme Court.
Third, the total number of clerks hired each year fluctuates, though it averages around five. I would wager that every clerk who applies to the entry-level market finds a position somewhere. The Supreme Court graduates roughly 36 clerks per year. If we assume that about 13% of those clerks become law professors, then roughly 87% do not enter academia and instead take roles in the public or private sectors. Contrary to common belief, the clerks who labor to shape the law are not particularly inclined toward teaching it.
Fourth, the ideological mix of these clerks is conspicuously skewed, though there has been some correction in recent years. Between 2012 and 2015, out of 25 entry-level hires, I count only four professors who leaned right of center: Chris Walker (Ohio State), James Stern (William and Mary), Will Baude (Chicago), and Justice Walker (Louisville). Between 2016 and 2019, there were four right-of-center hires out of twenty: Aditya Bamzai (Virginia), Steven Menashi (George Mason), Jennifer Mascott (George Mason), Robert Leider (George Mason). The share has risen considerably from 2020 onward, with nine right-of-center hires out of twenty: J. Joel Alicea (Catholic), Sherif Girgis (Notre Dame), Haley Proctor (Notre Dame), Garrett West (Alito), Steven Lindsay (Catholic), Lael Weinberger (George Mason), Brian Lipshutz (Florida), Micah Quigley (Notre Dame), and Brittney Lane Kubisch (Pepperdine).
Fifth, even as the rate of hiring has climbed, left-of-center professors continue to be recruited by higher-ranked institutions. Starting in 2012, entry-level SCOTUS clerk hires have gone to Harvard (5), Columbia (3), Virginia (3), Chicago (4), and more. Interestingly, Yale has had zero progressive SCOTUS clerk hires, yet it did hire Garrett West after his clerkship with Justice Alito. In contrast, the majority of conservative hires have occurred at more conservative-leaning law schools. George Mason, my alma mater, recruited four SCOTUS clerks (two of whom are now federal circuit judges). Notre Dame has brought on four conservative SCOTUS clerks. Catholic has recruited two.
Sixth, several schools recruited SCOTUS clerks as lateral hires. Jean Galbraith spent two years at Rutgers-Camden before moving to Penn in 2014. Michigan recruited Chris Walker from Ohio State, Harvard recruited Richard Re from UVA (who had previously been at UCLA), and Harvard recruited Sherif Girgis from Notre Dame. The professor who moved the most frequently in the shortest period is Katherine Mims Crocker, who began at William & Mary in 2019, switched to Texas A&M in 2024, and then landed at Cornell in 2026.
Eight, this post only considers law professors hired on the entry-level market between 2012 and 2026. I did not include several professors who began clerkships after their initial appointment. Justice Gorsuch has hired several of these academics: Stephanie Barclay (BYU, then Notre Dame, then Georgetown); Mark Storslee (Penn State, then Emory, then UNC); Christian Burset (Notre Dame, then Penn); and Tyler Lindley (BYU). Rev. Patrick Reidy began a clerkship with Justice Kavanaugh after his appointment at Notre Dame. Professor Kerrel Murray at Columbia later clerked for Justice Jackson.
Expanding this analysis further back than 2012 might reveal earlier patterns. Perhaps another time.
