Top Law Schools

Will a good grade in fed cts boost your clerkship chances if you are otherwise outside of a judge's range? E.g. Judge who only takes top 10-15% of the class, you are in the top 25% with an A- in Fed Courts. Does the answer change for less competitive judges? state court judges?

Anonymous User wrote:Will a good grade in fed cts boost your clerkship chances if you are otherwise outside of a judge's range? E.g. Judge who only takes top 10-15% of the class, you are in the top 25% with an A- in Fed Courts. Does the answer change for less competitive judges? state court judges?

That's extremely unlikely to make any difference.

I never even took fed courts and I have a district ct clerkship

ya I wouldn't worry about it. Many don't even take fed courts until later, or at all. You're doing well and I'm sure you'll be fine.

Generally I think you're better off GPA-protecting by not taking it until 3L.

vamedic03 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Will a good grade in fed cts boost your clerkship chances if you are otherwise outside of a judge's range? E.g. Judge who only takes top 10-15% of the class, you are in the top 25% with an A- in Fed Courts. Does the answer change for less competitive judges? state court judges?

That's extremely unlikely to make any difference.

Maybe booking the class might help a little, but isn't an A- in that class pretty much expected of anyone in the running for a federal clerkship?

The knowledge I gained by taking fedcourts has helped me exactly zero times during my CoA clerkship.

SBL wrote:

vamedic03 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Will a good grade in fed cts boost your clerkship chances if you are otherwise outside of a judge's range? E.g. Judge who only takes top 10-15% of the class, you are in the top 25% with an A- in Fed Courts. Does the answer change for less competitive judges? state court judges?

That's extremely unlikely to make any difference.

Maybe booking the class might help a little, but isn't an A- in that class pretty much expected of anyone in the running for a federal clerkship?

Well I got a B+ and quite a few interviews and a couple coa offers, so I'd have to say the answer is no. I think it's kind of understood that, especially at a really great school, more than half of a fed courts class may be federal clerk material, so getting an average grade isn't a huge indictment of your abilities. I don't know, maybe that's just my post-hoc rationalization of my B+ and no one actually sees it that way.