BYU grad Robert Stander will begin a prestigious one-year clerkship with U.S. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas this July.
The Clerkship Committee in the J. Reuben Clark Law School helps students like Stander identify and pursue the best clerkships available.
Lisa Sun, associate professor, said clerkships are an essential part of a law student’s education.
“Clerking for a judge after law school is an amazing capstone to a legal education,” Sun said. “It gives the opportunity to understand the workings of courts from the inside, to get a better sense of what kind of arguments and evidence are persuasive to judges, to hone writing skills and to develop good legal judgment under the guidance of an experienced judge.”
Stander recognized that he couldn’t have gotten this clerkship without the help of others.
RonNell Jones, an associate professor, was one of Stander’s teachers. She remembers him as one of the most remarkable students she has ever had.
“He is that rare combination of incredible intellectual candlepower and total, humble likeability that just doesn’t come along very often,” Jones said. “I am positive that he will represent BYU well at the U.S. Supreme Court and in anything else he chooses to do.”
Stander is grateful he was one of the 36 clerks selected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I am excited for the opportunity to clerk for Justice Thomas and grateful for the support of so many friends at the law school, as well as the support of two great mentors — Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton at the Federal Court of Appeals and Justice Thomas R. Lee at the Utah Supreme Court,” Stander said.
