From Private Practice to Gorsuch Clerk to Senate Staff: A Denver Lawyer's Career Whirlwind
In less than a year, Michael Davis went from managing a two-lawyer firm to clerking for Justice Neil Gorsuch to screening judicial nominations for Senate Republicans. "I'm glad I did it," Davis said in a recent interview, "but it's not something that I sought.”
August 17, 2017 at 12:24 AM
5 minute read
As recently as March, Michael Davis was minding his own business—literally—as managing partner of a two-lawyer firm in Denver called MRDLaw.
Then came the invitation from Neil Gorsuch, for whom Davis had clerked 11 years earlier when Gorsuch became a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The two remained friends, and when Gorsuch was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court on January 31, Davis was one of a group of clerks called “Team Gorsuch” who dropped everything to help him get confirmed.
As his confirmation neared, Gorsuch asked Davis to clerk for him again, along with three other former Gorsuch clerks. It would be a short-term gig from April to early July, but Davis said yes. Within a couple of days, Davis dismantled his practice—not an easy task—so he could go to work for Gorsuch.
Now, less than five months after decamping from Denver, Davis has moved to another new and unexpected job: chief counsel for nominations for the Senate Judiciary Committee. In an interview at his Capitol Hill office, Davis recently reflected on his whirlwind life changes.
“I'm 39 years old and I had my own law practice in Denver,” Davis said. “I was very happy. I went from making a comfortable living to a law clerk salary of $79,000 a year, and I had to abruptly shut down my law practice, including firing all my clients and firing my employees and contractors. A lot of the lawyers in this world, they think that being a clerk for a Supreme Court justice is like the Super Bowl. It was a wonderful experience and I'm very appreciative for the experience. I'm glad I did it, but it's not something that I sought.”
As for his new position, Davis said that working on nominations for the Senate is “the only job that would interest me in the entire government.” With a staff of five, Davis vets incoming nominees. “We don't just rubber stamp what comes in from the White House, no matter the administration,” he said.
Davis had earlier Washington experience in the George W. Bush White House and Justice Department, where he first met Gorsuch. His first Washington job was in 2000 on the staff of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who now chairs the Judiciary Committee. Davis then got his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law.
“Senator Grassley is like the grandfather of Iowa,” Davis said. “He's a guy who has been in Washington D.C. for my entire life, but Washington D.C. has never changed him. He's the exact same person who I knew 17 years ago when I opened his mail.”
Davis credits White House counsel Don McGahn for sending “really high quality constitutionalist, textualist, originalist judges from all over the country” to the Senate for judicial nominations. In spite of some media reports, Davis insisted that Democratic senators have been “extensively” consulted on nominations, though he allows that there may have been some “hiccups” in the process. “This is a young administration.”
Does Davis think he will be involved in another Supreme Court nomination soon, this time from a Senate vantage point? “I don't have any inside scoop,” Davis said, but he added, “I think Justice [Anthony] Kennedy is going to retire when he's ready … He's a good man and I don't see there's any chance he leaves … a second before he's ready.”
As with most high court clerks, Davis was reluctant to discuss in detail his three months clerking for Gorsuch. “I can say this. I had a wonderful experience,” Davis said. “Everyone treated me like family. It truly does feel like a family around the court. All of the justices were wonderful.”
Because he was a self-described “elderly law clerk” at 39 with a legal practice, Davis had to work out some ethics issues with Supreme Court legal counsel Ethan Torrey. Davis's firm had filed amicus briefs in two pending Supreme Court cases, Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. and Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley. “Any time those cases came up, I would get up and leave the room,” Davis said.
By tradition, the clerks for each justice have lunch with the other eight, justice by justice, at some point in their year at the court. That tradition was followed for the Gorsuch clerks too, in almost speed-dating style, given the compressed three-month time frame. “It was very gracious of the justices to do that,” Davis said.
Davis helped set up Gorsuch's office in the chambers of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, worked on opinions, and assisted in screening applicants for Gorsuch's staff.
He also worked on recruiting Gorsuch clerks for the 2018 term, joking that future clerks “better learn how to ski,” because Gorsuch clerk reunions take the form of an annual ski trip along with the clerks of Tenth Circuit Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich.
Gorsuch wouldn't be the first justice to use athletics-based clerk screening. The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist picked his three clerks with an eye toward doubles tennis matches.
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