--- title: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Law Clerk on Lessons From the Justice description: Margo Schlanger was a law clerk for Ruth Bader Ginsburg from 1993 to 1995. On the occasion of the Justice's death, Schlanger recalls how RBG inspired her personally and professionally. canonical: https://time.com/5890795/ruth-bader-ginsburg-law-clerk/ author: Margo Schlanger article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-09-19T22:36:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T09:13:41.899Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Working for Justice Ginsburg Shaped My Career and My Marriage og:description: "Her personal example was the kind of North Star everyone needs" og:url: https://time.com/5890795/ruth-bader-ginsburg-law-clerk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d94b6768bb8eadb/698a126522fb85fafce2b6f8/nikki-kahn-ruth-bader-ginsburg-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: nikki-kahn-ruth-bader-ginsburg-2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Working for Justice Ginsburg Shaped My Career and My Marriage twitter:description: "Her personal example was the kind of North Star everyone needs" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d94b6768bb8eadb/698a126522fb85fafce2b6f8/nikki-kahn-ruth-bader-ginsburg-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # I Was One of Justice Ginsburg's First Law Clerks. The Experience Shaped My Career and My Marriage > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Margo Schlanger](https://time.com/author/margo-schlanger/) ## Margo Schlanger Sep 19, 2020 10:36 PM UTC  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, celebrating her 20th anniversary on the bench, photographed on Aug. 30, 2013. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, celebrating her 20th anniversary on the bench, photographed on Aug. 30, 2013. Nikki Kahn—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Margo Schlanger](https://time.com/author/margo-schlanger/) ## Margo Schlanger Sep 19, 2020 10:36 PM UTC [Justice Ginsburg’s death](https://time.com/5660188/ruth-bader-ginsburg-dies/) is a blow to all Americans because she was a [warrior for equality](https://time.com/5481422/rbg-movie-male-plaintiff-history/) under the law. Sometimes she won her battles—most notably writing the majority opinion in the 1996 case ending Virginia’s exclusion of women from the Virginia Military Institute based on impermissible stereotyping about women’s capabilities, and in the 1999 case insisting that unnecessary segregation of persons with disabilities constitutes unlawful discrimination. Unfortunately, she didn’t always win (hence her apt description as one of the Court’s historical great dissenters). Either way, her opinions and [her “Notorious RBG” rock-star turn](https://time.com/5386238/ruth-bader-ginsburg-pop-culture-icon/) inspired millions. I was lucky enough to work for [Justice Ginsburg](https://time.com/5793731/ruth-bader-ginsburg-100-women-of-the-year/) as one of her first Supreme Court law clerks, from 1993 to 1995\. It was an incredible, unrepeatable privilege to serve close-up as she started her Supreme Court tenure. I remember her first phone call to me after her Senate confirmation (by vote of 96-3), when she stumbled over her new title—she was used to being Judge Ginsburg, but had to adjust to being the Justice. Obviously, she flourished and we were all the beneficiaries. I remember, too, the life lessons I absorbed. Personally, [she and her husband Marty](https://time.com/5488428/ruth-bader-ginsburg-marriage-equals/) demonstrated the joys of a marriage of professional and personal equals. (Marty was perhaps the best tax lawyer in America.) My now-husband clerked for Justice Ginsburg two years later—he and I met between our two clerkships because of our shared connection to the Justice, so we owe her that, too. Sam and I count ourselves beyond fortunate to have had the model of the Ginsburgs’ marriage as we created our own. Professionally, as an astoundingly smart lawyer, Justice Ginsburg expected her clerks to imitate a few of her work habits: to always, every single time, do our best work; to work _really_ hard; to care about both procedural fairness and substantive outcomes. I acquired other, more targeted, professional lessons too. Before she was a judge, Justice Ginsburg was simultaneously a civil rights lawyer and a professor, and she was great at both. As a law professor, I have tried to replicate that joint commitment—to improving the law and the lives of civil rights plaintiffs, while producing humane and worthwhile scholarship, while teaching and mentoring students. I can’t hope to achieve as much as she did, but like her Supreme Court opinions, her personal example was the kind of North Star everyone needs. RBG’s crucial contribution to America was as a [stalwart, eloquent fighter](https://time.com/5354990/ruth-bader-ginsburg-time/) for expanding the scope of “We the People,” pushing the United States to be its best self. Whether she wrote in majority or in dissent, her voice on the Supreme Court is irreplaceable. But we deserve a successor to her office who shares that passion and commitment. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5890795/ruth-bader-ginsburg-law-clerk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5890795/ruth-bader-ginsburg-law-clerk/"},"headline":"I Was One of Justice Ginsburg's First Law Clerks. 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