The SCOCAblog has a comprehensive and thoughtful post about the attorneys — more accurately, the types of attorneys — who work for California Supreme Court’s justices. It includes a history of the court’s use of annual clerks and career staff attorneys, the arguments for and against each type of attorney, and the hiring preferences of the current justices. As the SCOCAblog points out, we’ve talked about this topic before.
The post reports that Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Werdegar, Chin, and Corrigan have only staff attorneys, while Justice Liu has four annual clerks and one staff attorney, Justice Cuéllar has two annual clerks and three staff attorneys, and Justice Kruger has four staff attorneys and one opening. The post also notes that “the Chief Justice has spoken favorably about the prospect of hiring an annual clerk” and even provides an address for résumés.
So, how many staff attorneys does it take to staff a chambers? The post doesn’t take sides: “Fundamentally those with an interest in the court – and the court itself – surely must be most concerned with the most effective means of obtaining just results. If that is true, is it not best for the individual justices to (as they do now) decide for themselves how to assemble their teams?”