Law Clerk

Law Clerk in the United States

A young lawyer who provides key support services for a judge. Law clerks function at all levels of the Judiciary (Judicial Personnel issue), but are most important at the appellate level. Illustrative are the several functions law clerks perform for the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. The most critical is the screening of petitions from parties seeking review of their cases by the Court. The law clerks summarize the information in the petitions and court records, an invaluable function given the number of cases seeking review. Law clerks also do legal research on the issues contained in the cases selected for review. Law clerks are often given responsibility for drafting the opinions that accompany the Court’s decisions. Each of the nine Supreme Court justices has three or four law clerks. The clerks are usually recent graduates of prestigious law schools. Law clerks generally have served as clerks with a lower federal court prior to appointment with the Supreme Court. Law clerks remain with a justice only a year or two before moving on.

See Also

Judge (Judicial Personnel issue).

Analysis and Relevance

The impact of law clerks on the decision making of Supreme Court justices is considerable, but it varies with each justice. Some justices delegate a great deal of work to law clerks while other justices retain a greater amount for their own attention. It is clear, however, that law clerks have an impact in two important ways. First, justices depend on law clerks to screen requests for review of cases by the court. The sheer volume of cases precludes the justices from screening them all. Justice Stevens, for example, has his law clerks review all the petitions and pass on to him only the most substantial ones. He estimates this to be less than 25 percent of the total number of petitions. Other justices personally review greater numbers of petitions themselves, but consult extensively with their law clerks as they do so. Second, the availability of law clerks to outline or draft opinions encourages justices to file greater numbers of concurring or dissenting opinions. Furthermore, these individual opinions are likely to be more comprehensive and complex because of the availability of such high quality legal assistance.

Notes and References

  1. Definition of Law Clerk from the American Law Dictionary, 1991, California

Posted

in

,

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *