U.S. solicitor general's office at Main Justice. Credit: Mike Scarcella/ ALM

The recent departure from the U.S. solicitor general's office of several female lawyers—most recently Elizabeth Prelogar—has left only four women out of 16 assistant positions in the office.

With the U.S. Supreme Court bar dominated by men, the solicitor general's office has long played an important role as a source of talented female attorneys. Lawyers including Lisa Blatt, Deanne Maynard, Beth Brinkmann, Ilana Eisenstein, Elaine Goldenberg, Nicole Saharsky and now Prelogar have gone on to become Supreme Court practitioners and appellate practice leaders at major law firms.

Last term, of the 185 appearances made by lawyers before the Supreme Court, only 32 were women, and of them, only 10 were in private practice. The rest were from the solicitor general's office or from state or local agencies.

"The gender imbalance in the Supreme Court bar is skewed to say the least," said Sarah Harrington, a veteran of the office who joined Goldstein & Russell in 2017. "If the OSG ranks are almost exclusively male, that will inevitably exacerbate the gender imbalance for years to come." During her time in the office, Harrington said eight of the 16 assistants were female. All of the eight have left, she said.

The four women currently serving as assistants to the solicitor general are Erica Ross, Morgan Ratner, Colleen Sinzdak and Rebecca Taibleson.

Taibleson is the latest hire, joining the office in December and detailed from her position as an assistant U.S. attorney at the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

A former law clerk to then-judge Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Antonin Scalia, Taibleson testified in favor of Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination in September 2018. She extolled Kavanaugh's "humility, collegiality, and kindness," and asserted he "cannot be pressured by his law clerks or colleagues, and he cannot be intimidated by other actors in government."

Rebecca Taibleson, who clerked for Kavanaugh in 2010, testified at his confirmation hearing. Screen capture from Senate Judiciary Committee

Sinzdak, a former Hogan Lovells lawyer who clerked for D.C. Circuit judge Merrick Garland and chief justice John Roberts Jr., also testified in support of Kavanaugh, one of her professors at Harvard Law School. She said the judiciary and the nation "suffered greatly" from the Senate's failure to confirm Garland for the Supreme Court, but said "Kavanaugh has the traits that make him eminently qualified to serve as a justice on the United States Supreme Court." She joined the solicitor's office last September.

Morgan Ratner, formerly a Hogan Lovells associate, clerked for Kavanaugh and Chief Justice Roberts before she joined the solicitor general's office in 2017. Erica Ross, formerly a lawyer at Jenner & Block, clerked for D.C. Circuit Judge David Tatel and Justice Elena Kagan, and came to the solicitor's office in 2017.

Other female assistants to the solicitor general who've recently left included Rachel Kovner, confirmed in October to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Kovner, who clerked for Scalia in the 2007-2008 term, had argued 11 cases at the Supreme Court since 2013.

"If there are a lot of women in that office, then a lot of women argue," Goldenberg, now at Munger Tolles, told Bloomberg Law last year. "If there aren't a lot of women in that office, then not a lot of women argue."

In spite of the low numbers, sources familiar with the office said principal deputy solicitor general Jeffrey Wall has tried to recruit women.

At a panel discussion last October about the dearth of female advocates before the court, Williams & Connolly partner Sarah Harris said of Wall, "I think the SG's office has been quite conscious of where they are in hiring women, and I have seen very few people work as hard as he has in trying to find good women out there."

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