As we mentioned here, Frank McGuire became Clerk of the Supreme Court at the end of June 2012. Last month, Emily Green published a piece in the Daily Journal [subscription required] looking back on McGuire’s first year in his new post. McGuire’s administrative duties are too numerous to list but, as Green wrote, they include “updating the court’s personnel and policy manual and helping write the California Rules of Court, which govern issues ranging from setting briefing schedules for pending cases to determining eligibility for court-appointed counsel.” McGuire said of his workload since becoming Clerk that he has had to “‘prioritize’” because, in his words, “‘[t]here is always more on my desk than is humanly possible to do and my instinct in the past was everything had to be done yesterday.’”
McGuire works extremely closely with the Chief Justice. According to Green, the Chief said McGuire is “‘famous’” for “‘late-night, stream of consciousness emails.’” The Chief added, “‘I like having an alpha clerk. It’s exhilarating. And a little worrisome because he will find issues we have missed.’”
Green reports that one of McGuire’s primary goals is to “engag[e] the community in the work of the court.” He has done yeoman’s work in that regard already, organizing oral argument sessions at UC Davis School of Law, the University of San Francisco School of Law and, coming in October, UC Berkeley School of Law.