Elite Biglaw Companies Now Providing $500K In Signing Bonuses To Supreme Court docket Clerks
Simply how a lot is a former Supreme Court docket clerk price? How a lot are Biglaw companies and prestigious boutiques prepared to pay to woo associates with supreme mind and inside insights about how the nation’s highest courtroom operates and the way sure justices assume?
Again in 2021, we reported that $450,000 was the forecasted price for signing bonuses for former Supreme Court docket clerks. Sure, you learn that appropriately: former SCOTUS clerks have been making nearly double their Supreme bosses’ salaries in bonus cash only for signing on the dotted line, on prime of their base salaries and common bonuses.
A number of companies which can be thought-about heavy hitters in relation to wooing SCOTUS clerks — off hand, we’re speaking about companies like Jones Day, Kirkland & Ellis, Gibson Dunn, and Susman Godfrey, simply to call a number of — have supplied big-time bonuses (i.e., $400K+) to their SCOTUS clerk recruits prior to now. Quick ahead to 2024, the place first-year salaries for associates have climbed to $225,000, and excessive courtroom clerks now price a good prettier penny.
Based on the Washington Post, companies are opening the coffers broad for associates contemporary off a excessive courtroom clerkship. Listed here are a few of the particulars:
Through the courting course of, the town’s prime regulation companies deal with this elite group of legal professionals to perks like an costly dinner on the Wharf or Penn Quarter or a visit to a baseball recreation or spa. The recruitment is so aggressive that signing bonuses for Supreme Court docket regulation clerks have reached a brand new excessive — $500,000, in keeping with a spokeswoman for regulation agency Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Wow! Supreme Court docket clerks are actually price half one million {dollars} on a Biglaw market, which is a completely mind-blowing quantity. Speak about some golden handcuffs! But when that’s the going price for authorized superstars, you'll be able to wager that Biglaw companies are going to fortunately pay for it.
As famous by the Put up, Jones Day continues to nook the market on Supreme Court docket clerks, having employed 22 clerks since October Time period 2020, whereas Gibson Dunn and Kirkland & Ellis observe behind, with 12 clerks and eight clerks every. These companies are shelling out a ton of money to rent the easiest — and it leaves us questioning if different companies are prepared to observe of their footsteps.
If that your agency is paying $500,000 or extra for SCOTUS clerks, email us (topic line: “SCOTUS Clerkship Bonuses”) or textual content us (646-820-8477), and we’ll compile an inventory of each agency that’s paying so generously for supreme expertise.
Clerks for hire: The Supreme Court recruiting race [Washington Post]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Regulation, the place she’s labored since 2011. She’d love to listen to from you, so please be happy to email her with any suggestions, questions, feedback, or critiques. You'll be able to observe her on Twitter and Threads or join along with her on LinkedIn.
