Let's Get Personal with Eleventh Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom & Law Clerk Karissa Kang
Calling all interested in clerkships and the federal court system! We are thrilled to share our first episode featuring both a circuit court judge and one of his current law clerks. In Episode 82, we chat with the Honorable Kevin Newsom of the Eleventh Circuit and his current clerk, Karissa Kang. We discuss Judge Newsom's path to the federal bench as well as how Karissa landed a clerkship with Judge Newsom, what the day-to-day looks like in Judge Newsom's chambers from both the judge and clerk perspective, the three main things Judge Newsom looks for when selecting his clerks, and so much more. We had a blast chatting with both Judge Newsom and Karissa, so we hope you enjoy the conversation!
The Honorable Kevin Newsom is a graduate of Samford University and Harvard Law School. After law school, he clerked for Judge O’Scannlain on the Ninth Circuit, and went on to clerk for United States Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Between and after his clerkships, Judge Newsom worked at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. In 2003, he was appointed the State of Alabama’s Solicitor General. And in 2007 he returned to private practice, this time in Birmingham Alabama, until 2017, when he was appointed to the Eleventh Circuit.
Among other things, Judge Newsom is known for his exceptional legal writing, concurring with his own opinions, and promoting a fun and welcoming yet rigorous chambers environment.
Karissa Kang is a 2024 Yale Law School graduate, and is now clerking for Judge Newsom on the Eleventh Circuit. During law school, Karissa was the Editor-In-Chief of the Yale Law & Policy Review. She also spent her summers working at Susman Godfrey in Houston, Texas; Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City; and the New York State Attorney General’s Office in their Antitrust Bureau.
Special shout out to John Kang, Karissa’s father, and Allison's colleague at the University of New Mexico School of Law, who is always a fantastic supporter of Personal Jurisdiction, and who connected us to Karissa and thereby Judge Newsom.
Thank you to our sponsor, Themis Bar Review!
Listen to this episode for a special code to get the lowest price of the year on the February and July 2026 Themis Bar Review Course.
Find us online at https://www.personaljxpod.com
Find us on LinkedIn on our new page and subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter
Find us on Twitter @PersonalJxPod
We couldn't do this alone! So...
Personal Jurisdiction is powered and distributed with Simplecast.
We use Riverside.FM to record our episodes.
Our episodes are edited by Scott Donnell at Run and Drum Media https://www.runanddrummedia.com
Our logos were designed by Lizzie L. O'Connor.
Our Theme Song is Pleasant Porridge by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
See you next week!
Hallie & Allison
