Notre Dame Law School graduate Timothy Bradley ’20 J.D. is serving as a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett during the court’s 2022-23 term, which began last week.
He is the fourth ND Law graduate to clerk at the Supreme Court in the last four years.
Bradley was a top student at Notre Dame Law School. He was the 2020 recipient of the Col. William J. Hoynes Award — the Law School’s highest academic honor awarded to one member of each graduating class.
As a student, he served as the managing articles editor for the Notre Dame Law Review and was the president of the Notre Dame Federalist Society.
After graduation, Bradley clerked for Judge Steven Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and then for Judge Jeffrey Sutton on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Professor of Law William Kelley, who taught Bradley, said, “Tim combines impressive intellectual firepower with genuine humility and good humor in a way that is rare. It was both a privilege and pleasure to have him as a student.”
Richard Garnett, the Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law, also had Bradley as a student. “It was a privilege to teach and learn from Tim Bradley. As a student, he was engaged, thoughtful, and rigorous, and unfailingly collegial and charitable. He has a bright future in our profession, and is a great credit to Notre Dame Law School,” said Garnett.
During his second-year summer Bradley worked for Jones Day in Washington, D.C. He was an intern in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice during his first-year summer. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2016.
Notre Dame Law School has had a consistent presence on the Supreme Court in recent years.
In a post last year on Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports, Notre Dame Law School was tied for fifth place on a list of law schools with the best rates of Supreme Court clerkship placements. Leiter of the University of Chicago Law School reported the “per capita” rate of clerkship placements at the Supreme Court between 2017 and 2021.
Alexa Baltes ’17 J.D. clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh during the 2021-22 term. During the 2019-20 term, Audrey Beck ’17 J.D. clerked for Justice Kavanaugh, and Laura Wolk ’16 J.D. clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas.
In addition, Notre Dame Law Professor Stephen Yelderman clerked for Justice Neil Gorsuch during the 2019-20 term, and Professor Stephanie Barclay clerked for Justice Gorsuch during the 2021-22 term.
Justice Barrett graduated from Notre Dame Law School in 1997. She joined the faculty as a professor of law in 2002 and remained a Notre Dame faculty member until her confirmation to the Supreme Court in 2020.
More than one-third of Notre Dame Law School’s tenured and tenure-track faculty members — 14 out of 40 individuals — have clerked at the Supreme Court.
Originally published by at law.nd.edu on October 13, 2022.