When Justice Kennedy Visits

Southwestern to commemorate the new courtoom I'll be kissing ass for a job as a Supreme Court law clerk.

The intense annual competition to lure elite Supreme Court law clerks to top law firms is reaching record heights this year, with some firms offering jaw-dropping hiring bonuses of $150,000 or more.

These bonuses, added to base salaries in the third-year associate range, make it likely that some of the Court's 35 law clerks this term will be paid upward of $300,000 the first year they leave their justice's chambers. By contrast, Chief Justice William Rehnquist is paid $203,000 a year, and associate justices make $194,300.