Bradley Partner Wayne Drinkwater featured in Super Lawyers on Clerking on the U.S. Supreme Court

Bradley attorney Wayne Drinkwater was featured in the 2018 Mid-South Super Lawyers recalling his time as a law clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court to Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1976:

“I was doing a federal clerkship in Mississippi when it dawned on me that it wouldn’t cost more than a stamp and an envelope to apply for a Supreme Court clerkship. 

I still don’t know how I got the interview. Time passed and I got a call from the chief justice’s administrative assistant. She said, “If you were offered a clerkship with Chief Justice Warren Burger, would you take it?” I said, “Ma’am, that is not a question I need to think about.” I started the second week of July in 1976.

Before my first official day, I put on my best little suit and drove to the court just so I could make sure I could find the place. I walked in and said to the deputy clerk at the time, “Ma’am, my name is Wayne Drinkwater.” I couldn’t finish my sentence before she said, “You come with me now.” She took me straight into the courtroom and said, “Now you sit here and you watch this.” It happened to be the last day of the preceding term, and the justices were handing down opinions on what was the biggest issue at that time: death penalty cases. The courtroom was completely packed. Most of the justices were reading condensed versions of their opinions and they were very emotional about it. I’ll never forget that.

Drinkwater’s full response appeared in the article “Part of the History of This Country,” which was published in the 2018 Mid-South Super Lawyers edition of Super Lawyers Magazine.