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Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Courts - "Northwestern places 3 grads at one time in prestigious Supreme Court clerkships for only 2nd time ever"
Karoun Demirjian of the Chicago Tribune reports:
WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court clerkships are reserved for the few, the proud and the elite--who also often happen to be graduates of Ivy League schools.But this fall the honor will be extended to three recent Northwestern University Law School alumnae, who will begin yearlong clerkships in the offices of Justices Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito and John Paul Stevens.
Fewer than 40 young lawyers a year are selected to clerk for Supreme Court justices, and the clerkships go in the greatest number to graduates of top-ranked law schools. Since 2000, only Harvard and Yale have consistently placed three or more clerks in each annual class. * * *
Andrianna Kastanek, Class of 2005, and Jessica Phillips and Katherine Shaw, Class of 2006, will be intimately involved in the life of the court. Since the first one was hired in the 1880s, Supreme Court clerks have played a central role in the core functioning of the nation's most important judicial institution. Though job functions vary from justice to justice, clerks typically do everything from helping select the court's roster of cases from more than 8,000 petitions to drafting opinions to advising the justices as they decide high-profile cases. * * *
The selection of the three Northwestern women is especially notable given that women often have been underrepresented among Supreme Court clerks.
"It's such a surprise to me not to see lots of women in Supreme Court clerkships," said Kastanek, who was a leader of Northwestern's Women's Leadership Coalition.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 28, 2007 09:39 AM
Posted to Courts in general