What do judicial clerks say they do for a living? Forum

[king3780]

Just curious about this. Inevitably when you meet new people, they ask what you do for a living. I would think a judicial clerk would not be able to just say that without further explanation, otherwise it sounds like someone working in a mailroom or some other low-end job. I know the clerk with the judge I'm interning for this summer calls himself a "Briefing Attorney" on his LinkedIn page, but I don't know him well enough yet to ask him. I know there are at least a couple clerks on here and people who know clerks, so I'm looking for some insight.

[Nicholas Nickleby]

Flame?

If "clerking for a [x level] judge" sounds low-end in your circle, get a new circle.

[AreJay711]

Flame?

If "clerking for a [x level] judge" sounds low-end in your circle, get a new circle. good job picking friends

[Renzo]

Flame?

If "clerking for a [x level] judge" sounds low-end in your circle, get a new circle. good job picking friends

I like the image of a bunch of your billionaire senator friends laughing at you for being a mere federal district court clerk.

[XxSpyKEx]

In all honesty, most people outside of law students/lawyers (and people who know law students or lawyers well) don't know that a fed judicial clerkship is a prestigious position. Before I came to law school I didn't even know what a fed clerk was, and if someone had told me that they were a clerk for a judge I would have thought of the docket clerk in traffic court, lol. I'm not a clerk yet, but when I've told people (who aren't in law school, etc) of my plans after graduation, I ussually just told them I'm clerking for a judge following by a sentence or two of what a clerk actually does.

[Anonymous User]

I'm clerking for a COA judge in NYC. Even here, most nonlawyers I've met don't know what a clerkship is. They assume it's an admin assistant of some sort.

When I meet somebody at a party who asks what I do for a living, I just say, "I'm a lawyer." If the person then asks where I work, I say I work for a federal judge or for the government. At this point, usually the person's eyes glaze over and the conversation shifts to a different topic.

[vamedic03]

Who cares? The people who matter know what it means and the people who don't know what it means are unlikely to be impressed by anything else legal. The average person on the street probably doesn't think that a position in the DOJ OLC is very impressive nor would they be impressed by a Bristow Fellowship.

[dakatz]

You tell people you work for a judge. Seems pretty simple to me. They won't know what the hell "clerking" is, so that part is unnecessary. In fact, the word "clerk" makes it sound less prestigious to most people anyway (and how your fragile prestige comes off to laypeople seems to be the reason you made this thread in the first place)

[king3780]

Holy shit. Even for TLS I didn't expect this much backlash. Thank you anonymous guy and Spike for answering the question. For the rest of you, I'm not sure why I "need new friends" or my "fragile prestige" is a relevant response. I'm not worried about trying to impress people and as Spike pointed out, plenty of non-lawyers don't have a clue what clerking is. I prefer to have people understand what I do, rather than just spouting some meaningless title at them.

[dakatz]

So then I will repeat: Just say you work for a judge. You couldn't possibly be more clear than that.

[king3780]

So then I will repeat: Just say you work for a judge. You couldn't possibly be more clear than that.

That's probably what it will come down to. I was just thinking back to previous jobs, like when I was a page designer for a newspaper. Telling people I worked for a newspaper didn't really tell them anything about what I did. I could have been a writer, a copy editor, in ad sales, classifieds, pre-press, etc.

[thickfreakness]

Most of the clerks I've talked to describe the position as being "the judge's lawyer".

[dr123]

Every clerk I've met has always said "I'm a clerk with Judge ______ "

[A'nold]

Every clerk I've met has always said "I'm a clerk with Judge ______ "

You're missing the OP's point though. He/she wants to sound impressive to people.

[dr123]

Every clerk I've met has always said "I'm a clerk with Judge ______ "

You're missing the OP's point though. He/she wants to sound impressive to people.

Everyone who knows anything about Law knows that clerkships are impressive,

[paulinaporizkova]

This is what you say: I'm fucking awesome. Now shine my shoes. Here's a nickel, bitch.

[A'nold]

This is what you say: I'm fucking awesome. Now shine my shoes. Here's a nickel, bitch.

/thread.

[paulinaporizkova]

This is what you say: I'm fucking awesome. Now shine my shoes. Here's a nickel, bitch.

Love it. Would've even been better with a Casino/shinebox reference:

--ImageRemoved--

LOLL

[BlueDiamond]

is this a real thread? do you really care enough about what others think that this has bothered you?

[paulinaporizkova]

is this a real thread? do you really care enough about what others think that this has bothered you?

This thread is as real as any other thread in this shitstorm.

[dr123]

just say "I am the Law" when people ask you what you do

[A'nold]

IB op comes back on here saying that he "just wanted to make sure he was accurate" in telling people what he does for a living, lol.

OP: I'm not saying it's not good that you want your job title to represent your great accomplishments but we are all pretty dang smart; you can't just tell us that that was not the reason for your post and actually think we will believe that.

[Anonymous User]

I say that I'm a lawyer and work for a judge.

BTW, "briefing attorney" is the official title of the law-clerk equivalent in some state courts.

[JusticeJackson]

.

[XxSpyKEx]

This is what you say: I'm fucking awesome. Now shine my shoes. Here's a nickel, bitch.

TITCR