U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Friday threw her voice in support of a new clerkship plan to minimize chaos in the applications and hiring process, joining fellow Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan.

Sotomayor said she will pay close attention to those law schools and judges who follow the hiring plan and will “react accordingly to those who do not follow the plan.” The process under the plan, a two-year pilot, begins after a law student's second year. Judges' adherence to earlier similar plans was not uniform and they fell apart.

“It's hard to imagine in a profession where most of those teaching civil discourse, courtesy, respect and human tolerance—the idea that judges couldn't follow a plan undermines the lessons we are trying to teach,” Sotomayor said, speaking at the American Constitution Society's national convention in Washington. “It's hard for me to understand how the old plans fell apart. [The program] has a chance for success. I've seen judges working on it. I know that I, for one, will pay close attention to the clerk applicants from judge to judge.”

She added, “There is more talent out there than we as judges could ever use. It seems to me to send a poor message when we can't act civilly toward each other. This plan and its success will be to uphold our professional standards.”

Sotomayor endorsed clerking as a way to jump-start a lawyer's career by 10 to 15 years. She said one of her biggest regrets was not clerking (while making the aside that talking about regrets is a “bit embarrassing” as a sitting Supreme Court justice.)

“I was stupid and not thoughtful,” said Sotomayor, who was in conversation with professor Melissa Murray of the University of California Berkeley School of Law. “I made an uninformed decision. I came from a low-income background and I thought I had to get out there and work. I was wrong. By clerking, I would have advanced my career by five to 10 years. I tell every minority or every personal in law school, it's the best thing you can do.”

She said she thought clerking appeared akin to researching in a library. “It wasn't until I became a judge that I learned clerking was more than that. It's about your relationship with your colleagues or institution or other lawyers,” she said.

Law clerks read more papers, briefs and different ways to approach the practice of law than a typical lawyer would in 10 to 15 years of practice, Sotomayor said. “Anyone who clerks has an understanding of convincing a judge of an argument.”

Sotomayor also opened up about what it is like for the women on the Supreme Court, who a recent study found are interrupted by male counterparts more often than the men on the bench interrupt each other.

Asked if she noticed this, Sotomayor laughed. “Is there a woman in the room who has failed to notice that?”

Behind closed doors, she said, there's sometimes a tendency for the opinions of female justices—she is among three—to get drowned out. If a male justice says the same opinion later, there is a “perking up” and acknowledgement of the idea. Sotomayor said in those circumstances she will make a point to say, “Yes, Ruth just said that.”

Since the study's publication in October, Sotomayor said things have improved and she particularly credited Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. for being aware of the issue. Some male justices have apologized for interrupting—something she said had not happened before.

“If you don't sensitize them to it, there won't be change,” Sotomayor said.

Sotomayor also discussed her relationships with her fellow justices, and what it's like to have a new face on the court in Neil Gorsuch. No matter how contentious oral arguments might be, the justices, she said, each lunch together afterward. Justices, she said, visit each other's houses, learn about their colleagues' families and take care of each other when there is a tragedy, she said.

Breyer, Sotomayor recalled, sent Ginsburg food every night when her husband, Martin, a talented cook, was dying. And the justices called Sotomayor, she said, to make sure she recovered from her recent shoulder surgery.

Sotomayor on Friday was wearing a sling supporting her left arm. In April, she fell at her home and injured her shoulder—and was still on the bench almost immediately afterwards.

She joked about how she's partly “a bionic woman.” As she was interviewed, she walked through the crowd, giving “side hugs” to the lunch guests.

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