Evening star., 1951-09-14
ACIerk's Job synonymous With Success
By Robert K. Welsh

Justice Wiley Rutledge, will be
law clerk to Justice Hugo Black during
the Supreme Court term that begins
October l. He thus joins group for
whom opportunity knocks in an unusu-
ally demanding way,
For almost 10 years its members have.
had brief but extremely busy existence
behind the judicial scenes. Yet they,
the work they do, and the course of their
later life are little known by the layman,
except perhaps in an inaccurate, i'm
material or irrelevant (but not incorn-
petent) way
The popular assumption is that Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes set a practice of
choosing his boys" annually on recon-
mendation of some one at Harvard Law
School. Another prevalent idea seems
to be that law clerks of the past get
together now and then. somewhat as is
of them did for surprise party on the
Goth birthday of Justice Holmes.
Actually, the Great Dissenter con-
CURED in a precedent established by
Justice Horace Gray, who served from
1881 to 1902. The selection procedure
has since been followed to one degree
or another by many other justices. To-
day most of the justices have two law
clerks who come from many different
schools. Far from forming any sort of
club, the clerks scatter to many parts
of the country and many fields of ac-
tivity after leaving the court.
In the days of Justice Gray, those
legal aides were carried on the rolls as
"stenographic clerks at $1,000 year.
afA 411nr -.
themselves secretaries. Now they
generally go by the name of law clerks
at salaries more than double those OF
their predecessors who performed sub
stantially the same duties.
Supreme Court justices have not al
ways been blessed with law clerks. Prior
to 1881 they had no clerks or any one
else. They wrote their own opinions in
longhand and they did their own re-
search and checking
Most lawyers ais we'll as laymen are
interested more in knowing what be-
comes of law clerks than in who they
are or exactly what they do while clerks.
The clerks themselves have passion
for anonymity during their year or so
behind the judicial curtain
1t is true that no law clerk has yet
become Supreme Court Justice But
what ever became of Dean Acheson.
Francis Biddle, James M. Lands,
Thomas G. Corcoran, George L. Harri-
son. Irving S. Olds. Leland Duer, CAL
vert Magruder, James H. Rowe, jr.;
Adrien S. Fisher, Philip L. Graham, BY
ron "WhizZer" White. and others who
once were law clerks?
nF AL
clerk to Justice Brandeis during the
1919-20 term. Mr.. Biddle. former At
torney General. was one of the 80 law
clerks Of Justice Holmes back in 1911
IL
Judge Magruder now senior judge OF
the First Circuit Court of Appeals, was
Brandeis law clerk. Mr. Lands, for
mer Harvard Law School dean. and one
time chairman of the Securities and Ex-
change Commission, also was on the
Brandeis list. Mr.. Harrison and Mr.. Olds,
who were clerks for justice Holmes, re-
spectively. became president of the New
York Life Insurance Co. and chairman
OF the board of the United States Steel
Corp.
Mr.. Corcoran, Tommy the Cork" to
President Roosevelt. achieved public
prominence during the New Deal era.
Now practicing attorney here, he was
4 clerk for Justice Holmes in 1867.
The last of the Holmes boys" James
Henry Rowe, jr.. was an administrative
assistant to President Roosevelt and now
practices law here Mr. Fisher was a
law clerk to Justice Frankfurter in 1899.
after having been a clerk to Justice
Brandeis In 1888. He later held nu-
merous Government posts including those
OF general counsel of the Atomic Energy
Commission and legal adviser to the
State Department.
'Whizzer' White, an all-America and
professional football player who wore a
Phi Beta Kappa key and won a Rhodes
Scholarship to oxford, was Chief JUS
tice Wilson's law clerk in 1867. Mr..
White has returned to his native Colo
rado to practice law.
Not all of the law clerks of the past
have stayed in the legal profession. Mr..
Graham, for instance Is president and
publisher of the Washington Post. He
clerked for Justice Reed Mr.. Duer,
Holmes law clerk in 1909-10, became a
prominent lawyer in New York and later
headed one of the country's largest COM
panies handling upholstery supplies.
Many of the law clerks eventually
became law professors. There always
has been q, close relationship between
the justices and law schools in selecting
young graduates for the coveted appoint
ments In many instances the recon-
mendations have been made directly by
the law schools OF some professor. While
Harvard has supplied most of them be-
cause of the arrangement followed by
Justices Gray and Holmes and several
others. the representation has been
greatly broadened in recent years
Mr.. Rutledge, for instance, is Yale
graduate. He won scholarship and
graduated with high honors in the law
school there. Mr.. White, besides having
studied at Oxford, graduated. from Colo
RADIO University
There has been only one woman law
clerk thus far. She was Miss Lucille
Lomen and was clerk to Justice Douglas
in 1944-5. She is practicing law in
Washington State.
William T. Coleman. jr., of. Philadel-