Levi Distinguished Visiting Jurist lecture in November 2018.
It echoes the success of many other Law School alumni who have been part of the Supreme Court’s clerkship program (which celebrates its 100th year this fall): people like Professor Emeritus Kenneth Dam, ’57, a former University of Chicago provost and former deputy secretary in the US departments Treasury and State Dallin Oaks, ’57, a distinguished Mormon leader and Rex Lee, ’63, a former US solicitor general.īut even more, the record tells a broader story about the extraordinary ways in which clerkships shape young lawyers, the relationships that emerge, and the role that the Law School has played in supporting its students’ clerkship ambitions, even as the legal market and clerkship hiring practices have shifted.īeryl Howell, chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, spoke at the Law School as part of the Edward H. The unbroken record comprises 143 alumni, including four who will clerk this term. Together Stone and Barnett marked the start of a Law School streak: for at least part of each of the past 47 years, at least one Law School graduate has clerked on the US Supreme Court. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law and a former dean of the Law School and former provost of the University of Chicago, clerked for Justice William J. Stone, ’71, now the University of Chicago’s Edward H. That same term, Barnett’s classmate Geoffrey R. The conversation-which improved once the confusion subsided-launched what Barnett, now a prominent Washington, DC, lawyer, calls “another treasured and unique and wonderful year,” a chance to continue refining the writing, research, and advocacy skills he’d been building on the Fifth Circuit.īut it proved to be part of a longer thread, too. “It’s Byron White,” the voice said again.Īnd so it was: Justice White, calling to offer Barnett a job as a law clerk for the Court’s 1972–1973 term. “This is Byron White.”īarnett sighed, unconvinced: “I’m going to work now, Barry. Alberts was working for a firm back in Chicago. Barnett was living in New Orleans, clerking for Judge John Minor Wisdom on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit-his first job out of law school.
“Barry, what are you doing?” Barnett said, impatiently. It wasn’t hard to imagine Alberts mimicking a distinguished jurist.
Barnett was sure it was Barry Alberts, ’71, who was famous among their recently graduated classmates for his uncanny impressions of Law School faculty. The first time Byron White called Robert Barnett, ’71, the young lawyer didn’t believe he had a US Supreme Court justice on the other end of the line.
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