Clement resigned on May 14,2008,effective June 2,2008,and joined the Georgetown University Law Center as a visiting professor and senior fellow at the Supreme Court Institute.[1] He established his own law firm,Clement &Murphy,in 2022 after leaving Kirkland &Ellis,following that firm's decision to end its Second Amendment work.[2][3]
Clement then entered graduate study in economics at Darwin College,Cambridge,receiving a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) with distinction in 1989. He then attended Harvard Law School,where he became the Supreme Court editor of the Harvard Law Review.[17] He was one of eight editors of the law review's annual lampoon who oversaw publication of a satirical piece mocking an article by Mary Joe Frug on the one-year anniversary of her murder. Clement and the other seven editors apologized for the parody after backlash from students and faculty.[18] Clement received a Juris Doctor,magna cum laude,from Harvard in 1992.
After his clerkships,Clement entered private practice as an associate in the Washington,D.C. office of the law firm Kirkland &Ellis. Clement went on to serve as Chief Counsel of Subcommittee on the Constitution,Federalism and Property Rights of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Afterward,he was a partner in the Washington,D.C.,office of King &Spalding,where he headed the firm's appellate practice.
On August 27,2007,President Bush named Clement as the future acting Attorney General of the United States,to take office upon the resignation of Alberto Gonzales,effective September 17,2007.[21] According to administration officials,Clement took that office at 12:01 am September 17,2007,and left office 24 hours later.[22] On September 17,President Bush announced that Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division,Peter Keisler would become acting Attorney General,pending a permanent appointment of a presidential nominee.[23][24]
Clement gave notice of his resignation on May 14,2008,effective June 2,2008,and returned to Georgetown University Law Center as a senior fellow.[1] He had been mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee in a John McCain presidency,[1] and was a coveted potential hire among D.C. legal firms,who reportedly vied to build a firm around his expertise in appellate matters.[25] Evan Tager of Mayer Brown said:"Paul Clement is the Holy Grail of law firm recruiting... The buzz in the legal world about Clement is like the buzz in basketball when LeBron James was coming out of high school and turning pro. It will be interesting to see where the market will go."[25]
As of November 20,2008,Clement re-joined King &Spalding as a partner in its expanding appellate litigation practice. As part of King &Spalding,he argued on behalf of the NRA in the Supreme Court case McDonald v. Chicago on March 2,2010.[26]
Clement was part of the legal team that represented NBA players in labor negotiations during the 2011 lockout. Clement also advised ten NFL players in the spring of 2011 when the NFL was facing a potential lock-out.[8]
As a partner at King &Spalding,Clement was hired in April 2011 by the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives to defend the Defense of Marriage Act,a law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman,after the U.S. Department of Justice chose to stop defending it.[6] King &Spalding withdrew from the case on April 25,2011,and Clement resigned from the firm to continue his representation,arguing that "representation should not be abandoned because the client's legal position is extremely unpopular in certain quarters."[27]
On March 27,2013,Clement served for the respondent Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) of the United States House of Representatives at the Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor. On June 26,2013,the Court ruled against Clement and BLAG by finding the Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional.
Clement led the challenge on behalf of 26 states to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court on March 26–28,2012. The Court upheld the "individual mandate" as a tax,but found the States could not be compelled to follow the portion of the law relating to Medicaid expansion.
In 2019,Clement was an attorney for the appellants in the landmark Rucho v. Common Cause Supreme Court case,in which partisan gerrymandering was declared a non-justiciable issue.[32]
In September 2020,Clement appeared on President Donald Trump's list of potential Supreme Court candidates.
In June 2022,following his clients' Supreme Court victory in New York State Rifle &Pistol Association,Inc. v. Bruen,Clement separated from Kirkland &Ellis,after the firm announced it would "no longer handle Second Amendment litigation".[5] Subsequently,Clement opened a boutique law firm,Clement &Murphy PLLC,with Erin Murphy,another former partner at Kirkland &Ellis.[33][34]
In April 2025,Clement joined the defense team representing Milwaukee Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan,who was arrested on April 25 for allegedly interfering with an ICE arrest and deportation operation.[39]
Cases before the Supreme Court
Clement is among those attorneys who have appeared most frequently before the U.S. Supreme Court during the twenty-first century.[19][20]
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