Supreme Court Clerks for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
Justice O'Connor hired four law clerks per year during her time as an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. Each clerk serves for one year and completes critical legal work, including researching the background behind cases, making recommendations and arguments on how they should be decided, and writing drafts of opinions. Click on any one of them below to see more information, including a list of opinions by Justice O'Connor during the term they worked at the Court.
| NAME | COURT TERM (OT) | NOTABLE LATER ROLE(S) |
|---|---|---|
 | 1981 | Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court (2005-2009) |
| 1981 | Dean, University of California, Berkeley School of Law | |
 | 1981 | Distinguished University Professor, John Deaver Drinko-Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law |
 | 1981 | General Counsel, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (2006-2009) |
 | 1982 | Dean, Cornell Law School (2004-2014) |
| 1982 | Of Counsel, Foley & Lardner LLP (Los Angeles) | |
 | 1982 | Ordained Presbyterian minister in Atlanta |
 | 1982 | Professor, Rutgers School of Law–Newark |
| 1983 | Assistant to the President of the United States; Chief of Staff for White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles; Partner, Williams & Connolly LLP | |
 | 1983 | Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (2013-Present) |
 | 1983 | Author and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute; Former partner at D.C. litigation law firm Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel |
 | 1983 | Of Counsel, Jones Day |
 | 1984 | Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court (2014-2019) |
 | 1984 | Chancellor and President, Syracuse University (2014-Present); Dean, Washington University School of Law (2005-2013); Dean, Vanderbilt University Law School (1997-2005) |
 | 1984 | Dean Emerita and F. Wendell Miller Professor of Law, University of Iowa College of Law |
 | 1984 | L.Q.C. Lamar Professor of Law and Director, Child Rights Project, Emory University |
 | 1985 | Professor of Law, Quinnipiac University |
 | 1985 | Professor, Georgetown University Law Center (1995-Present); Associate Counsel for the Whitewater investigation (1994) |
 | 1985 | Class of 1962 Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law |
 | 1985 | Commissioner of New Jersey Department of Education (2011-2014); Superintendent of Newark Public Schools (2015-2018); Deputy Chancellor of New York City Department of Education (2007-2009) |
 | 1986 | Partner, Wilson Sonsini (Washington, DC) |
| 1986 | Program Director, The Conference Board | |
 | 1986 | Professor of Law, UCLA Law |
 | 1986 | General Counsel of the Air Force (2009-2013); General Counsel of the Army (1999-2001) |
 | 1987 | General Counsel, WePay, A Chase Company |
| 1987 | Global Chief Compliance Officer, Aon | |
 | 1987 | Associate Clinical Professor and Faculty Director, Boston College Innocence Program |
 | 1987 | Professor of Law, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School |
 | 1988 | Francis Cabell Brown Professor in International Law, Georgetown University |
| 1988 | Corporate Deputy General Counsel, Viacom, Inc. | |
 | 1988 | Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (1992-1999) |
 | 1988 | Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (2012-Present); Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida (1999-2012); Adjunct Professor, University of Miami School of Law and Florida International University College of Law |
 | 1989 | Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (2006-Present) |
 | 1989 | Partner, Sidley Law |
 | 1989 | CEO and Academic Director, CHILD USA; Fox Family Pavilion Distinguished Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania |
 | 1989 | General Counsel, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2009-2012); General Counsel, The 3M Company (2012-Present) |
| 1990 | Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer and Assistant General Counsel, Laureate Education, Inc. | |
| 1990 | Partner, Gendler & Kelly (Beverly Hills) | |
 | 1990 | Professor of Law, UCLA Law |
 | 1990 | Judge, Utah's Third Judicial District (1998-2014) |
 | 1990 | Senior Vice President, Concord Capital LLC |
 | 1991 | Norman Abrams Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law; Director, UCLA Supreme Court Clinic |
 | 1991 | Professor of Law, Quinnipiac Law School |
 | 1991 | United States Ambassador to UNESCO (2014-2017) |
 | 1991 | Founder, Brown & Peisch PLLC; Partner, Covington & Burling LLP |
 | 1991 | Director of Communications Law, Google; General Counsel, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) |
 | 1992 | Richard A. Horvitz Professor of Law and Professor of Economics, Philosophy and Public Policy, Duke University |
 | 1992 | Founder, MoloLamken LLP |
| 1992 | Sole Practitioner at E. Vaughn Dunnigan, P.C. | |
 | 1992 | Senior Associate, Hogan Lovells (Northern Virginia) |
 | 1993 | Partner and co-chair, Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP |
 | 1993 | Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Apple, Inc. (2017-Present); General Counsel, Honeywell International Inc. (2003-2017) |
 | 1993 | Professor, Yale Law School; 2017 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction; Co-founder of the Maya Angelou School in Washington, DC |
 | 1993 | Professor, UCLA School of Law; Co-founder, "The Volokh Conspiracy" blog |
 | 1994 | Assistant U.S. Attorney General (2001-2003); Professor, Georgetown University Law Center |
 | 1994 | Acting Associate Attorney General of the United States (2016); Litigation partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher |
 | 1994 | Professor of Legal Rhetoric, American University Washington College of Law |
| 1994 | Senior Executive Vice President, Charter Communications | |
| 1994 | Partner, Katten Law | |
 | 1995 | Attorney, Dentons Law; Special Counsel for Global Competition, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) |
| 1995 | Attorney, BartlitBeck | |
 | 1995 | Partner, Brooks Pierce (Raleigh, NC) |
 | 1995 | New York Times bestselling author |
 | 1996 | Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (2019-Present) |
 | 1996 | Partner, Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick |
 | 1996 | William J. and Dorothy K. O'Neill Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School |
 | 1996 | Justice, California Court of Appeals, Division Two |
 | 1997 | Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (2013-Present); Principle Deputy Solicitor General of the United States (2011-2013) |
 | 1997 | Partner, Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick |
| 1997 | Of Counsel, Paul Hastings (Washington, DC) | |
 | 1997 | Candace M. Carroll and Leonard B. Simon Professor of Law, Duke University |
 | 1998 | Partner, Jones Day |
| 1998 | Assistant United States Attorney and Appeals Chief, United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut | |
 | 1998 | Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, Yale Law School |
 | 1998 | Partner, Mayer Brown |
| 1999 | CIA intelligence officer; Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr | |
 | 1999 | Partner, Wilmer Hale (New York) |
| 1999 | Owner, Law Office of Leslie A. Hakala | |
 | 1999 | Professor of Law, Santa Clara University |
 | 2000 | Partner, Wilkinson Walsh Law Firm |
 | 2000 | Partner, DLA Piper (San Diego) |
 | 2000 | Dean, Wayne State University Law School (2017-Present); Vice Dean, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University (2015-2016) |
 | 2000 | Associate Professor of Law and Director, Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights, University of Notre Dame Law School |
 | 2001 | Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (2014-Present) |
 | 2001 | Partner, Hawash Cicack & Gaston Law Firm |
 | 2001 | Senior Counsel, Orrick |
 | 2001 | Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School |
 | 2002 | Partner, Susman Godfrey LLP (Houston) |
 | 2002 | Partner, Covington & Burling (Palo Alto, CA) |
 | 2002 | Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law, Yale Law School |
 | 2002 | Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP |
 | 2003 | Partner, Bartlit Beck LLP (Denver); Deputy Chief Counsel, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, 2010-2011 |
 | 2003 | Senior Vice President of Programs, Earthjustice |
 | 2003 | Lee E. Teitelbaum Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty and Research, S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah (2017-Present); Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs & Research, Brigham Young University (2014-2016) |
 | 2003 | Counsel, Wilmer Hale |
 | 2004 | Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher |
 | 2004 | General Counsel, Office of the Kings County District Attorney (Brooklyn) |
| 2004 | Deputy Solicitor General, California Department of Justice | |
| 2004 | Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Exelon | |
 | 2005 | Counsel, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP |
 | 2005 | Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Global Health Justice Partnership, Yale Law School |
 | 2005 | Associate Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law |
 | 2006 | Professor of Law, Yale Law School |
| 2007 | Author of historical romance novels under the pen name Courtney Milan | |
 | 2008 | Author; CEO; Only blind person to have served as a U.S. Supreme Court law clerk |
 | 2009 | Associate Judge, District of Columbia Court of Appeals |
 | 2010 | Assistant Professor of Law, UCLA Law |
| 2011 | Litigation Associate, Bancroft (Washington, DC) | |
 | 2012 | Partner, Goldstein & Russell, P.C. (Bethesda, MD) |
 | 2013 | Partner, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP (New York) |
| 2014 | Senior adviser and counsel to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan | |
| 2015 | Associate, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher |
Header photo: United States Supreme Court. Credit: Patrick McKay / Flickr - CC.