Several years ago a partner and I rushed to the airport to catch earlier flights after a meeting ended sooner than expected. We both had gold frequent flier status on the same airline, but he got in the regular line while I got in the line for frequent fliers. He got upgraded and I didn’t. I realized afterward that a gold in the regular line is special, but a gold in the gold line is not.
That incident came to mind recently when a Vanderbilt Law Review drew considerable press attention1 with a study of apparent ideological patterns in the hiring of U.S. Supreme Court clerks by law firms.2 But the data tell a more interesting story, one that is difficult to account for—a small number of law firms attract the lion’s share of Supreme Court law clerks.
