Dwight Carswell, a 25-year-old 2004 Iola High School graduate, has accepted a position as a law clerk for Judge Neil Gorsuch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, Denver, Colo.
The one-year, and very competitive, position began in late August.
Carswell completed both his undergraduate and law school at the University of Chicago. He graduated from law school in June and spent the summer studying for the bar exam, which he passed.
On Sept. 30, he was admitted to the Kansas Bar. Kansas Chief Justice Lawton Nuss presided over the swearing-in ceremony.
“I didn’t need to pass the Kansas bar for my current job,” Carswell said recently in a telephone interview, “but I figure it might come in handy in the future.”
Carswell said he hopes to practice law at a state or federal level.
His current job entails researching cases for Judge Gorsuch. The District Court oversees six states from which attorneys can appeal their cases to the higher court.
Ten judges take cases at the 10th Circuit, Carswell said.
Working close with Judge Gorsuch is very rewarding, Carswell said.
“He lets me give my opinions and help him write oral arguments and draft opinions,” Carswell said. Gorsuch once clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy.
Coming back to Kansas, “is a possibility,” Carswell said. But in the meantime he’s enjoying living so close to the Colorado Rockies.
