Tulane Law alumni add 21 members to the Supreme Court bar

On May 1, 21 Tulane University Law School alumni were sworn in to the U.S. Supreme Court bar to be able to practice in the high court.

Dean David Meyer, a Supreme Court bar member who clerked for Justice Byron White in 1992-93, moved membership of the attorneys before the justices, who also issued orders and two opinions that day. Afterward, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Samuel Alito visited with Tulane alumni in the Natalie Cornell Rehnquist Dining Room, one of the court’s private rooms named for former Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s late wife. Both justices have lectured at Tulane Law’s summer abroad programs: Ginsburg at the Paris program in 2013 and Alito in both Paris and Berlin in 2016.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The alumni sworn in represented a range of practices and locales: from Metairie, Louisiana, to Mineola, New York, and from large firms in New York City and Washington to the legal teams at the Departments of State and Justice.

“The day is a special showcase of the leadership and talent of Tulane Law alumni — both those in Washington and from across the country who are admitted to practice in the court,“ Dean David Meyer said.

The group also had a private meeting with Alabama Sen. Luther Strange (L ’75) at the Russell Senate Office Building. Strange, a 2016 inductee into the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame, took office in February after former Sen. Jeff Sessions was confirmed as U.S. Attorney General. 

That evening, more than 40 Tulane Law alumni and friends gathered to be entertained by stories from Gen. William K. Suter (L ’62), who was Clerk of the Supreme Court from 1991 to 2013, serving under both Chief Justices William Rehnquist and John Roberts and 14 associate justices. Suter was inducted into the Tulane Law School Hall of Fame in March. Winston & Strawn’s D.C. office and partner Bryant Gardner (L ’00) hosted the reception.

The next Tulane Law Supreme Court swearing-in is planned for May 28, 2019.