Garrett West, Hillsdale College alumnus and bona fide rock star, will join Yale Law School’s faculty as an associate professor of law this summer.
“Many of us say that Garrett West is one of the best students we have seen, a high standard,” Hillsdale president Larry Arnn said. “He is a fine young man in character and intellect. We are very proud of him.”
Thomas McKenna at the Hillsdale Collegian reports:
West received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Hillsdale before graduating from Yale Law School in 2018.
“The college taught me how to read, write, and think, and it is where I first experienced the intellectual life,” West told The Collegian in an email. “I am grateful to the many friends and mentors who helped me along the way.”
After two clerkships with federal judges, West clerked for Associate Justice Samuel Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court. He is now an associate of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he works for the Supreme Court & Appellate Litigation Group in Washington, D.C. He said his teaching subject has not yet been decided.
At a time when intellectual diversity among university faculty members is rare, one of Garrett’s former professors aptly noted that he “exemplifies the best of a Hillsdale education, and shows that one does not have to be loud or sacrifice the love of truth in order to reach high positions of influence and that there is no substitute for excellence, probity, and care in one’s work.”
Bravo, Garrett.