Chesterfield Smith Honorees

The Honorable Paul D. Clement, 2009 Chesterfield Smith Honoree

The Honorable Paul D. Clement was Solicitor General of the United States (2005–08) and is currently a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and senior fellow at their Supreme Court Institute.  As solicitor general, and now as Georgetown faculty, Mr. Clement and his staff regularly serve as resource people at Street Law’s Supreme Court Institutes and Seminars. 

Mr. Clement received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, and a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge University. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School where he was the Supreme Court editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Following graduation, Mr. Clement clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, he worked as an associate in the DC office of Kirkland & Ellis. Mr. Clement went on to serve as Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism and Property Rights. Afterwards, he was a partner in the DC office of King & Spalding, where he headed the firm’s appellate practice. Mr. Clement also served from 1998 to 2004 as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught a seminar on the separation of powers.

Mr. Clement joined the Department of Justice in February of 2001. Before his confirmation as Solicitor General, he served as Acting Solicitor General for nearly a year and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General. He has argued 49 cases before the United States Supreme Court, including McConnell v. FEC, Tennessee v. Lane, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, United States v. Booker and Gonzales v. Raich. (excerpted from www.usdoj.gov)

Leon Silverman, 2008 Chesterfield Smith Honoree

Leon Silverman is chairman of the Supreme Court Historical Society’s board of trustees and former co-chair and of counsel at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP.  Mr. Silverman has long been an enthusiastic supporter of Street Law’s work. During his tenure as president of the Supreme Court Historical Society, it began co-sponsoring Street Law’s Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers. Since its inception in 1995, the Institute has brought over 600 social studies teachers from across the country to Washington for five days of educational activities related to teaching about the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Silverman also played a key role in expanding this program to offer special Supreme Court Seminars exclusively for Washington, DC, and New York City area teachers. Mr. Silverman joined Fried Frank in 1949, became a partner in 1956, and served as Co-Chairman of the Firm for eight years. He has represented a wide range of corporate clients in multi-million dollar cases. He was the lead attorney in a federal investigation of former Labor Secretary Raymond J. Donovan and has championed the cause of victims’ rights in major asbestos cases. (excerpted from www.friedfrank.com)

The Honorable Janet Reno, 2007 Chesterfield Smith Honoree

The Honorable Janet Reno was born in Miami, Florida.  She received her B.S. from Cornell University.  In 1960, she enrolled at Harvard Law School, one of only 16 women in a class of more than 500 students.  She received her LL.B. from Harvard in 1963.  She was named staff director of the Judiciary Committee of the Florida House of Representatives in 1971, and in 1973 accepted a position with the Dade County State Attorney's Office.  In 1978, she was appointed by Governor Reubin Askew as State Attorney for Dade County.  She was then elected to this position five times.   General Reno, the first woman to serve as Attorney General, was nominated by President Clinton in 1993.   As Attorney General, she championed innovative programs to teach young people about their rights and responsibilities under the law.  Her support helped Street Law strengthen and expand its school, juvenile justice, and community-based programs.  Since leaving Washington she has worked tirelessly for social justice in America, including efforts to help diversify the legal profession. (excerpted from www.usdoj.com)

Mrs. Cecilia Marshall, 2006 Chesterfield Smith Honoree

Preserving the history of and educating the public about the Supreme Court of the United States has long been a cause of most importance to Mrs. Marshall.  She has been a Trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society since 1993.  To celebrate the anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education and continue the legacy of her husband, the Honorable Thurgood Marshall, she traveled the country with educational groups teaching about the monumental decision.

Mrs. Marshall has been a favorite guest at Street Law’s Supreme Court Institutes and Seminars.  Co-sponsored by Street Law, Inc. and the Supreme Court Historical Society, the Supreme Court Institutes and Seminars train some of the best law, government and social studies teachers in the country to better teach about the U.S. Supreme Court.  Mrs. Marshall attends receptions at the Court where she mingles and converses with the teachers.  The teachers often rank this experience as a highlight of the Institute.

The Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, 2005 Chesterfield Smith Honoree

The Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor was born in El Paso, Texas. She received her B.A. and LL.B. degrees from Stanford University.  She served as a Deputy County Attorney in California and as a civilian attorney for the U.S. Army in Germany. She practiced law with a law firm, and served as Assistant Attorney General in Arizona. In 1969, she was appointed to the Arizona State Senate and then was re-elected for two terms. She then served as and elected county judge and was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. In 1981, President Reagan appointed her to be the first female justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Justice O’Connor has been extremely supportive of Street Law, especially in regard to the Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers. The Institute—co-sponsored by  the Supreme Court Historical Society—brings 60 of the country’s most qualified secondary teachers of law, civics, and government to Washington for six days of immersion in the U.S. Supreme Court.  For the last ten years, Justice O’Connor has hosted a reception at the Court for the participants where she addressed and appreciated the teachers as a group, mingled and talked to them individually and in groups, and posed for photographs with them.  Many of these photographs now hang in high school classrooms across the United States.  The teachers often rank this experience as a highlight of the Institute.