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NEWS DECEMBER 28, 2020 ¦ 21

Former Kagan Clerk Elizabeth Wilkins Joins
Biden White House Senior Staff

By Mike Scarcella

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan spoke with NYU Law School Dean Trevor Morrison at the law school on

A April 4, 2016. Photo: Rick Kopstein/ ALM
former law clerk to Justice Elena Kagan is about all of the things that happened for me to be
joining the Biden White House as senior able to be here.”
adviser to Chief of Staff Ronald Klain, the Wilkins’ co-clerks that term were William Dre-
transition team said Tuesday in announcing a slate her, Daniel Hemel and Amanda Rice. Dreher, a
of newly filled posts. former Jenner & Block associate, is an assistant
Elizabeth Wilkins, a Yale Law School graduate and U.S. attorney in Seattle, and Hemel teaches at the
native of the District of Columbia, clerked for Kagan University of Chicago Law School. Rice is an as-
during the 2014-2015 term. In 2015, the Supreme sociate at Jones Day in the law firm’s Detroit of-
Court validated same-sex marriage, and Chief Jus- fice. At arguments in the health care case, Kagan
tice John Roberts Jr. again rode to the rescue of the publicly name-dropped—in a rare move—her law
Affordable Care Act. clerks.
In a student profile posted at Yale law, Wilkins Before joining Kagan’s chambers, Wilkins clerked
recalled taking a call from Kagan and then quick- for then-Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S.
ly sharing the news with her parents. “My mom Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Garland has
started to cry,” Wilkins said. “The idea to them that long been a leading “feeder judge” who sends clerks
their daughter would be clerking on the Supreme onward to work at the Supreme Court.
Court was so incredible. In that moment, I thought
¦ Continued on PAGE 22

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