$400K for SCOTUS Clerks: A Bonus Too Far?
“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," one legal scholar says.
November 14, 2018 at 12:53 PM
6 minute read
The original version of this story was published on National Law Journal
Supreme Court veteran Carter Phillips of Sidley Austin remembers vividly the first time he offered a hiring bonus to a Supreme Court law clerk seeking a job at his firm. It was 1987, when bonuses were rare, and he tendered $10,000.
Thirty-one years later, the prevailing hiring bonus for Supreme Court clerks is $400,000—up from $300,000 in 2015. And that does not include salaries. If the trend continues, the clerk bonus will soon approach twice the annual salary of the justices they work for. Associate justices are paid $235,000, and the chief justice gets $267,000.
“Things have changed a bit over the past 30-plus years,” Phillips said. “I am now hoping my grandchildren get clerkships. It will be $1 million by then.”
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