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BEHIND THE SCENES
By Brennan Wingerter and William Gill
THE FIRST RULE OF BEING A LAW CLERK:
You do not talk about being a law clerk. The
second rule of being a law clerk: You do not talk about being a law clerk. Third rule of being a law clerk: Your work is your judge’s work. Fourth rule: Everything you do reflects on your judge—everything.
Working as a law clerk for Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade [see “Justice for All,” page 124] isn’t quite as dark and mysterious as being in Fight Club, and we certainly aren’t claiming to be nearly as cool as Ed Norton or Brad Pitt, but the life of a Ten- nessee Supreme Court law clerk has more than its fair share of drama and intrigue. We work in a Court where the decision-making involves five very different, very opinionated, very intelligent justices. We hear the best and the worst arguments by attorneys who represent everyone from penniless death row inmates to multi- billion-dollar corporate industries. We read the best and the worst opinions from trial and appellate courts across the country. After three years of clerking, count- less hours of researching, and endless pages of analyti- cal writing, we know something about every area of the law. But you probably have no idea who we are.
Law clerks are the unseen faces of the court, the unheard voices of the law, the unknown advocates for justice—as we should be. At the end of the day, regard- less of what we have learned or accomplished, it is our judge who matters. If our judge asks a question, we
find an answer. If our judge calls an impromptu lunch meeting, we cancel our other plans. If our judge shares confidential information, it never leaves the conference table. If our judge sets a deadline, we work overtime to meet that goal. If our judge seeks re-election for another term in office, our jobs also hang in the balance. If our judge retires, we must seek new employment.
As law clerks, we know that our time with the Court, which has been a privilege to serve, is limited. Justice Wade has expressed the ephemeral nature of our posi- tions through the words of one of his mentors on the Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge Joe Duncan. Judge Duncan—who was as fond of storytelling as Justice Wade—once began to share a story with a law clerk, but the clerk interrupted to inform Judge Duncan that he had told the same story before. Judge Duncan responded, “Well, when a law clerk has heard all my stories, that’s
how I know that the time has come for the clerkship to end.” Every time we catch the eyes of Judge Duncan star- ing down at us from his stately portrait suspended against a marble backdrop, we know that if we ever admit to hav- ing heard a story before, it will be time for us to move on.
Brennan Wingerter and William Gill are judicial law clerks for Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade.
34 CITYVIEWMAG.COM JULY AUGUST 2015
Photograph by Bryan Starmer