(CNN)When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returns for the final time to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, an army of more than a hundred of her former clerks will meet the casket and accompany it up the stone steps leading to the great hall where the liberal icon presided for almost 30 years.
The Supreme Court, built on precedent and rooted in tradition, will honor Ginsburg in a private ceremony and then a public viewing, but her former clerks, standing guard, won't leave the casket. Besides her family and written opinions, Ginsburg's clerks are her most lasting legacy. They began their tenures as young inexperienced lawyers and emerged with unparalleled legal credentials that will mark their resumes for a lifetime: Supreme Court clerk. 20 years of closed-door conversations with Ruth Bader Ginsburg But for many, working for Ginsburg wasn't just a legal lesson. She also instilled the notion that women could have it all, but maybe not at the same time. She praised her "life partner," her husband, Marty, "the only man," she would say, who "cared that I had a brain." The justice -- who was a night owl, a stickler for administrative law and close friends with her ideological opposite, the late Justice Antonin Scalia -- was a role model in both law and life. "The justice taught us all a thing or two about a life well lived," said former clerk Lori Alvino McGill. "She was among the first mentors to tell me I could do anything -- but she also told me that it would be foolish to think I could do many things well at the same time," said McGill. "The life lessons she imparted gave me the courage to take a step back from my own career and choose, for this moment in time, to be more present for my three children."Ginsburg told her clerks that sometimes in marriage, and in work, it helps to be "a little bit deaf," and she taught them about perseverance and herculean strength. Amanda Tyler joined the justice's chambers in the summer of 1999 but soon learned that weeks before the new term was to begin, Ginsburg had received her first cancer diagnosis. Most believed she would sit out arguments to go through an extensive treatment regimen. But on the first day of the term, Tyler --who wrote about the experience for The Atlantic magazine -- got the call from the justice. "Amanda," she said, "call the chief's chambers and make sure he knows I'm coming." Later, Ginsburg would show off the new fanny pack she had acquired to hide her portable chemotherapy device. Amy Coney Barrett, a proven conservative on Trump's Supreme Court short listThe day after her husband died in 2010, Ginsburg was on the bench, rarely missing a session. In the weeks before her own death, she exchanged drafts for a book project she was working on with Tyler. "She was still teaching me about the craft of writing -- how important precision is, and to never use four words when three will do," Tyler said.