Which Law Schools Produce the Most SCOTUS Law Clerks?

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Summary: Use this chart and corresponding article to learn which law schools produce the most Supreme Court law clerks and justices.

What is it about the law schools at Harvard and Yale that allow them to produce the best powerhouses in the industry? Sitting on the United States Supreme Court currently there are five justices that attended Harvard and three that attended Yale. There are over 200 law schools in the country, so how is it that these two produced such amazing results? BCG Attorney Search examines this trend and breaks it down to better understand why in the article and chart “Law Schools That Send the Most Attorneys to United States Supreme Court Clerkships.”

  

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The trend of Yale and Harvard leading the pack continues when looking at SCOTUS law clerks. Since 1960, Harvard has sent 480 graduates to clerk for Supreme Court justices, with Yale close behind with 371. No other law school can come close to comparing with their numbers. Learn the exact amount that each law school has produced since 1960 in this chart. Clerkships are a valuable learning opportunity that opens doors that are not possible to reach any other way.

SCOTUS clerkships are the toughest positions to land. The graduate will have to have top grades from an elite law school as well as completed extensive legal research and writing in a law review setting. Many will have already completed a clerkship with a one of the country’s Circuit Courts of Appeal judges. Once in the position they work alongside the justice to learn the ropes and help them get their work done. This means they are working on very important cases.

The Supreme Court has great power of the country, working on cases that affect the lives of all Americans. Some question if it is a good thing that only two law schools are supplying the majority of the members of the Supreme Court and even the law clerks. As the article states, “the ‘law of the land’ should reflect the experiences, education, and ways of understanding and interpreting the Constitution of many different types of qualified jurists…”

Do you think there is a problem with the Supreme Court being affiliated with only Harvard and Yale students? Tell us in the comments below.

To learn more about law school clerkships, read these articles:

• Ranking of Law Schools by Judicial Clerkships
• Top 10 Law Schools with the Most Competitive Students
• Best Law Schools for Job Accessibility – 2017

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