$400K Is Now The Official Market Rate For Supreme Court Clerk Bonuses

$400K Is Now The Official Market Rate For Supreme Court Clerk Bonuses
Above The Law
By Staci Zaretsky
November 15, 2018

But not everyone is thrilled that the number has climbed so high.

Just how high will signing bonuses for Supreme Court clerks go? It was just last summer that the going the market rate rose to a new peak — $350,000 — but it’s now been confirmed that $400,000 is now the prevailing rate. Yes, you’re reading that correctly. Biglaw firms and prestigious boutiques are now willing to pay former Supreme Court clerks almost half a million dollars in bonus money just for signing on the dotted line, on top of their base salaries and regular bonuses. Former SCOTUS clerks are making almost double their Supreme bosses’ salaries. This is crazy.

We first hinted at this trend back in August, when my colleague David Lat mentioned that at least six firms — Jones Day, Kirkland & Ellis, Orrick, Paul Weiss, Skadden Arps, and Susman Godfrey — were offering $400,000 bonuses to their SCOTUS clerk recruits. Michael Scanlon, hiring partner at Gibson Dunn, now confirms that "the market appears to have settled" at $400K.

Court-watchers are having trouble believing Biglaw firms are willing to pay this much money just for a new associate’s résumé line, and some have even suggested that ethics rules be consulted. Tony Mauro of the National Law Journal has the details:

"It’s become absurd," said Todd Peppers, who has written books about Supreme Court clerks. "These firms can no longer credibly argue that they are compensating these former clerks for the additional education and training obtained during their Supreme Court clerkships. Yes, these former clerks are very smart. That being said, this is about access and insight into the individual chambers."

U.C. Hastings College of the Law professor Rory Little, himself a former clerk, said, "If I were a clerk today and knew that I could get an extra almost half-million dollars, I would feel very careful about the firms’ Supreme Court cases while clerking. Seriously, an ethics expert needs to look at this carefully, under the current ethics rules and concerns we adopt for lawyers and judges in other situations. All 37 clerks or more feel that same ‘tug,’ even if it is implicit or unconscious."

More clerks at one firm than at any other may be feeling that "tug" right now, and that’s because Jones Day just emerged victoriously from this year’s wooing of the SCOTUS clerks, having cornered the market after hiring 11 of them. That’s a $4.4 million investment in signing bonuses alone for a group of new hires who may wind up taking the money and running after just a few years at the firm.

As noted by Harvard Law School professor Richard Lazarus, "Jones Day is paying a lot of money for a photograph." Oof, Jones Day needs to open up a personal injury practice group for that sick burn. Luckily for the firm, there’s a pretty big chance it’ll be staffed by some highly intelligent Supreme Court clerks. Read more