Law Schools That Send the Most Attorneys to United States Supreme Court Clerkships

There are over 200 law schools in the United States, yet the current United States Supreme Court—the highest court in the land and one of the three branches of our federal government—is comprised of jurists who attended just two of the most elite law schools: Harvard Law School and Yale Law School.
   
For the current roster of high court justices, Harvard Law School is represented by the following alumni: Chief Justice Johns Roberts; Anthony Kennedy; Stephen Breyer; Elena Kagan; and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who graduated from Columbia Law School after attending Harvard Law).

The Yale Law School graduates are Clarence Thomas; Samuel Alito; and Sonia Sotomayor.
Recently deceased Antonin Scalia also graduated from Harvard Law School, as did Neil Gorsuch, the man who is expected to assume Justice Scalia’s seat on the high court.
   
As depicted on the chart below, the Harvard-Yale trend we see with Supreme Court justices also applies with SCOTUS law clerks. Dating back since 1960, graduates of Harvard Law School lead the list of youngsters privileged enough to clerk for a Supreme Court justice, followed by graduates of Yale Law School. During that period, Harvard sent 480 law clerks to the high court and Yale sent 371. Since 1960, Harvard has always led Yale (as well as every other law school) in sending clerks to the Supreme Court, except for the period from 2010 to the present, when Yale sent 83 clerks and Harvard sent 79.

After Harvard and Yale, the only other law schools that have sent more than 100 law clerks to the Supreme Court since 1960 are the University of Chicago Law School (147 clerks); Stanford University Law School (133 clerks); Columbia Law School (113 clerks); and the University of Virginia School of Law (112 clerks).    

Eleven law schools turned out just two SCOTUS clerks since 1960 and another thirty schools turned out just one. Many other law schools have never seen even one of their graduates obtain a clerkship for a United States Supreme Court justice.
   
Being a Supreme Court law clerk is an extremely prestigious and intellectually demanding position, and it can open many professional doors for the remainder of an attorney’s career. SCOTUS law clerk positions are highly, highly selective, and contenders must generally have earned top grades at top law schools and done extensive legal research and writing in a law review context. Moreover, most judicial clerks come to SCOTUS having already completed at least one significant clerkship for a judge on one of the country’s Circuit Courts of Appeal.

Law clerks perform essential roles for the justices for whom they work and are integral parts of the Supreme Court ecosystem. Though each justice has his or her own way of utilizing and mentoring his or her clerks, the basic job of a Supreme Court law clerk is to assist the justices get through their workload. This means helping organize and prioritize the voluminous legal challenges that get filed in the Supreme Court each year, researching and writing about cutting-edge and controversial legal issues, helping draft opinions, serving as sounding boards for the justices, and—at the highest level—helping justices develop and hone their legal philosophies and legacies.

Each Associate Justice is allowed four judicial law clerks, while the Chief Justice gets five.

Many former clerks go on to important positions in private legal practice and in various government positions. In some cases, former Supreme Court clerks have become Supreme Court Justices themselves, as was the case with Byron White; John Paul Stevens; William Rehnquist; Stephen Breyer; John Robert; and Elena Kagan. If confirmed, Neil Gorsuch will join this group, as Gorsuch clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy.
   
While few would question the intellectual ability of a top student from a top law school like Harvard or Yale to handle the analytical rigors of a Supreme Court clerkship, some question whether a high court dominated by a few elite schools and their graduates is wise for the country and for the evolution of the law. The idea is that the Supreme Court—which influences every aspect of our lives as citizens in fundamental ways—might benefit from having a wider variety of backgrounds, voices, and perspectives.

Critics of the elite composition of the Court believe that 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, including those who were educated within the “intellectual bubbles” of Harvard or Yale, but also including many other brilliant and insightful people who were educated at places besides Harvard and Yale. Advocates of a less homogenous Court believe that diversity will enhance the evolution of the law and ensure that seminal decisions that change lives and move society in different directions are as fair and representative as possible.
   
The numbers are clear: Graduates of Harvard Law School and Yale Law School dominate our Supreme Court. They fill the seats of the Justices and they fill the seats of the judicial law clerks who provide the intellectual and organizational support for those Justices.
 

No.	Law School	1960 to Present	1970 to Present	1980 to Present	1990 to Present	2000 to Present	2010 to Present
1	Harvard Law School	480	411	343	269	175	79
2	Yale Law School	371	342	291	232	159	83
3	University of Chicago Law School	147	142	124	99	48	15
4	Stanford University Law School	133	121	102	82	51	25
5	Columbia Law School	113	103	87	64	34	15
6	University of Virginia School of Law	112	103	81	57	41	21
7	University of Michigan Law School	84	73	56	37	23	10
8	New York University School of Law	53	50	45	35	29	13
9	University of California, Berkeley School of Law	51	44	38	25	17	6
10	University of Pennsylvania Law School	42	35	17	11	7	4
11	Georgetown University Law Center	41	39	34	23	16	8
12	University of Texas School of Law	34	30	18	15	8	3
13	Northwestern University School of Law	30	30	26	20	13	7
14	Duke Law School	22	21	17	16	11	9
15	George Washington University Law School	18	16	15	13	9	3
16	J. Reuben Clark Law School	16	16	14	10	5	1
17	UCLA School of Law	16	13	8	6	2	1
18	Notre Dame Law School	15	13	11	10	7	3
19	University of Georgia School of Law	10	10	9	6	6	2
20	University of North Carolina School of Law	9	6	5	4	1	-
21	Cornell Law School	8	7	5	4	4	3
22	University of Minnesota Law School	7	6	4	3	2	2
23	University of Southern California Law School	7	5	1	1	-	-
24	James E. Rogers College of Law	6	6	2	1	-	-
25	University of Kansas School of Law	6	6	6	5	3	-
26	Vanderbilt Law School	6	6	5	5	3	2
27	Boston University School of Law	5	5	2	1	-	-
28	Washington and Lee University School of Law	5	5	4	2	-	-
29	University of Illinois College of Law	5	5	4	2	2	-
30	Moritz College of Law	4	4	4	4	2	1
31	S.J. Quinney College of Law	4	3	3	1	1	-
32	Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington	4	3	1	-	-	-
33	Pepperdine University School of Law	3	3	3	3	2	1
34	University of Mississippi School of Law	3	2	-	-	-	-
35	University of Washington School of Law	3	2	1	-	-	-
36	Boston College Law School	3	3	2	2	1	-
37	Washington University Law School	3	-	-	-	-	-
38	Fordham University School of Law	3	2	2	2	-	-
39	University of Houston School of Law	3	-	-	-	-	-
40	University of Miami School of Law	2	2	2	-	-	-
41	Columbus School of Law	2	2	-	-	-	-
42	University of Colorado Law School	2	2	-	-	-	-
43	University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law	2	2	2	1	1	-
44	Dedman School of Law	2	2	2	1	-	-
45	Loyola Law School	2	2	2	-	-	-
46	Tulane University Law School	2	2	2	-	-	-
47	University at Buffalo Law School	2	2	2	1	-	-
48	Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law	2	2	1	-	-	-
49	University of Iowa College of Law	2	2	1	-	-	-
50	Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law	2	2	2	1	1	-
51	Wisconsin Law School	1	1	1	1	1	-
52	Villanova University School of Law	1	-	-	-	-	-
53	University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law	1	1	-	-	-	-
54	Rutgers School of Law - Camden	1	1	1	1	1	-
55	Detroit Law School	1	1	-	-	-	-
56	Rutgers School of Law - Newark	1	1	1	1	-	-
57	Northeastern University School of Law	1	1	-	-	-	-
58	Howard University Law School	1	1	1	-	-	-
59	University of Alabama School of Law	1	1	-	-	-	-
60	George Mason University School of Law	1	1	1	1	1	-
61	Penn State Dickinson School of Law	1	1	-	-	-	-
62	Santa Clara University School of Law	1	1	-	-	-	-
63	University of New Mexico School of Law	1	1	1	-	-	-
64	University of Kentucky College of Law	1	1	-	-	-	-
65	Case Western Reserve University School of Law	1	1	-	-	-	-
66	University of Maine School of Law	1	1	1	-	-	-
67	Creighton University School of Law	1	1	1	1	1	-
68	University of Maryland School of Law	1	1	1	1	-	-
69	Emory University School of Law	1	1	1	-	-	-
70	Seattle University School of Law	1	1	1	-	-	-
71	Paul M. Hebert Law Center	1	1	1	1	1	1
72	Seton Hall University School of Law	1	1	1	1	1	-
73	Washburn University School of Law	1	1	-	-	-	-
74	South Texas College of Law	1	-	-	-	-	-
75	Washington College of Law	1	1	-	-	-	-
76	St. Mary%27s University Law School	1	-	-	-	-	-
77	University of Denver	1	1	1	-	-	-
78	William S. Richardson School of Law	1	1	1	1	1	1
79	Brooklyn Law School	1	1	1	1	1	1
80	Temple University Beasley School of Law	1	1	1	-	-	-
81	The College of William Mary Law School	1	1	1	-	-	-