Salaries: Supreme Court Bonus Babies

A New York Times article about Supreme Court clerks, and the bonuses they receive from the large, elite firms they join post-clerkship (Supreme Court Bonus Babies), has generated a lot of buzz on the web. The associate gossip e-rag, Abovethelaw.com is responsible for much of it, as the writer of the article, David Lat, is an editor there. He recently pleaded with readers to email the article to their 50 closest friends because he was "desperately trying to crack the NYT's "Most Emailed Articles" list. As of this posting, his article had made it to #17.

The clerkship bonuses are indeed jaw-dropping. As described by the NYT, signing bonuses are expected to reach $250,000 this year - paid on top of starting salaries approaching $200,000 - for the select few "young legal geniuses who spend a year assisting the justices in selecting cases for review, preparing for oral argument and drafting opinions. Thus some former clerks, in their first year practicing law, will earn twice as much as their former judicial bosses (the chief justice earns $212,000 a year; his colleagues earn $203,000 each)." Normal clerkships - that is, within an appellate court - earn the average AmLaw 100 firm associate about $50,000.

But Lat argues that the economics of this situation are just. "Even if the astronomical Supreme Court clerkship bonuses may be dubious investments for law firms," he writes, "they are good news for our legal system. By promising clerks a financial windfall on the back end of their clerkships, firms encourage bright young lawyers - many of whom carry loads of educational debt - to render service to the court and country."

Comments

[steven davies]

Nice and informative post.I like your affiliate elite review program.

[NYU2L]

$250 has definitely become the standard. Checks are being cut as the bonus babies start their jobs.