With all women law clerks, Kavanaugh sets precedent

New justice marks a Supreme Court first with selections.

Brett Kavanaugh WASHINGTON — arrived Tuesday for his first day on the bench with an unprecedented all-female class of law clerks.

As a result, more than half of the Supreme Court’s law clerks this year will — for the first time in American history — be women.

Former colleagues of Kavanaugh have described a long-standing reputation of promoting women in law. During his 12 years at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the majority of Kavanaugh’s law clerks were women — 25 of 48 — and during his confirmation hearings he testified that he graduated more of them to clerkships at the Supreme Court than any other federal judge.

Supreme Court clerkships — among the most coveted credentials in American law — grant young lawyers unusual influence over the court’s proceedings. There are about 36 law clerks each term, and they offer recommendations on which cases to hear, help prepare the justices for oral arguments and draft major portions of the opinions and dissents.

The clerks often graduate into prolific careers in government, academia and major law firms; eight throughout history have gone on to serve on the Supreme Court, including Kavanaugh, who served as a law clerk from 1993 to 1994 for Justice Anthony Kennedy, whom he is replacing.

Kavanaugh’s first Supreme Court clerks graduated from top law schools and worked as clerks for conservative federal judges. One worked for Kavanaugh on the appeals court; the other three worked for prominent appeals court judges appointed by Republican presidents.

These are the four women who will serve in the role for Kavanaugh this year.

Shannon Grammel (Stanford Law School, Class of 2017)

Grammel, the former president of the Stanford Law Review, served as a law clerk for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Wilkinson is known nationally as a judge who sends many clerks from his chambers to the Supreme Court.

Grammel worked on the Stanford Law School’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic and was a summer associate at Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick as well as Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, both in Washington.

She previously interned at the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 2014 from Harvard University, where she was a DJ for Harvard Radio Broadcasting and taught English overseas, according to her LinkedIn page.

Kim Jackson (Yale Law School, Class of 2017)

Jackson, a former law clerk for Kavanaugh on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, was one of 18 women who signed a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee in July describing his mentorship toward women.

Jackson, one of only a handful of black law clerks at the high court this year, also worked as a law clerk on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for Judge Dabney Friedrich, a judge nominated by President Donald Trump who dated Kavanaugh in the 1990s.

Jackson worked as the Articles & Essays editor of Yale Law Journal.

Megan Lacy (University of Virginia School of Law, Class of 2010)

Lacy came to the Supreme Court clerkship from the White House, where she worked with Don McGahn, the White House counsel, on Kavanaugh’s nomination.

She was a clerk from 2013 to 2014 for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Lacy previously worked for Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, oversaw confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh.

Sara Nommensen (Harvard Law School, Class of 2016)

Nommensen was an attorney-adviser in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. She previously clerked for Judge Laurence Silberman on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Nommensen was a former student of Kavanaugh at Harvard Law School and signed a letter, along with 79 other former students, supporting his nomination.

Nommensen was Notes editor of Harvard Law Review and served on the board of the Harvard Federalist Society, according to her LinkedIn page. Like Grammel, she worked as a 2015 summer associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington. She graduated from New York University in 2012.