This is a printer friendly version of an article from the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune. Posted with the permission.
Back to WRACS

Posted December 30, 2007

COLUMN: Assumption grad a law clerk for justice
She will serve Supreme Court Justice Stevens beginning in July
Cecelia Gack Klingele, 31, of Jacksonville, Fla., has accomplished what most lawyers only dream about; she has been chosen to be a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. She will begin working for him in July.

Klingele is the daughter of former Nekoosa resident Greg Gack, now of Columbus, Ohio, and the late Dawn Gack.

She is a 1994 graduate of Assumption High School and received her law degree, magna cum laude, in 2005 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"She is the first Supreme Court clerk from UW-Madison since 1945," said Kathleen Cavanaugh, an English teacher at Assumption High School.

Klingele chose law for a career as a result of her experiences with the child welfare system as a foster parent.

"She is completely given to the idea of helping others and is very humble," Cavanaugh said. "She is always for the underdog, and wants to help the parents who need help with their children.

"When Cecelia was 15, her family was involved in an automobile accident," Cavanaugh said. "Her younger sister died as a result of the accident and her mother never recovered so I became her 'adopted' mother," Cavanaugh said.

"Cecelia is a brilliant, gifted woman and an incredible, articulate writer," Cavanaugh said.

When she graduated from Assumption, she received a scholarship to the University of Chicago. After a year, she transferred UW-Madison because her family needed her closer to home.

Klingele keeps in touch with Cavanaugh and other members of her Assumption family by telephone.

Law clerk positions typically last between one and two years. She will clerk for Stevens for one year.

"Law clerks are lawyers for judges. We research and write and try to answer questions and provide information for the judge," Klingele said.

Klingele currently is a clerk for Judge Susan Black of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Jacksonville. She previously was a clerk for Judge Barbara Crabb, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

After clerking for a year for Justice Stevens, Klingele hopes to work for a Washington law firm for a few years, then possibly work for the government or teach.

Her professional achievements are amazing by any standards, but all the more so because she accomplished all of this while she and her husband parented five children, a teenage son and four daughters, the last two born while she was in law school.

Klingele and her husband, Brad, are the parents of Kenny, a graduate of DeForest High School; Kateri, 9; Tess, 7; Trea, 4; and Felicity, 3. Brad, a graduate of UW-Madison, is completing a master's degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame.

During law school, Klingele frequently worked in her law school clinical programs with an infant sleeping in a baby carrier under her desk. She earned numerous awards and scholarships for her academic excellence and outstanding service to her community and the law school. Among her long-lasting contributions at UW-Madison was the founding of the Law School Family Association, a student group that serves the needs of students raising families.

Nancy Quick is a correspondent and former lifestyle editor for the Daily Tribune.