Part-Time D. Ct. Clerkship Forum

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Part-Time D. Ct. Clerkship

Post by Anonymous User » Sun May 06, 2018 8:52 am

I'm considering applying to a part-time (20 hours/week) federal district court clerkship, and I was wondering if anyone has had experience with anything like this. On the one hand, it seems like it would be a good way to get fed. court clerkship experience for someone (i.e. me) who wouldn't necessarily be all that competitive an applicant for a full-time position. On the other hand, there are obvious issues in terms of pay/benefits, and I imagine I wouldn't be allowed to do other legal work during that time. Anyway, I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!

objctnyrhnr

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Re: Part-Time D. Ct. Clerkship

Post by objctnyrhnr » Sun May 06, 2018 10:59 am

I think an interesting, related question is whether you are ethically obligated to disclose on a resume that it was part time. I might lean no (if you’re an unpaid special ausa, do you have to write unpaid on your res?) but I bet others’ opinions might differ.

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Re: Part-Time D. Ct. Clerkship

Post by Anonymous User » Sun May 06, 2018 1:46 pm

A few questions so we might be able to give you some advice:

Where are you in your legal career?

What district is the position in and is the position somewhere where you'd be okay hanging around half the week?

What are your career goals for after the clerkship? If you have an interest in publishing a paper, the half time setup would give you an opportunity to have time to write the paper and have access to the research materials you'd need for free. If you are interested in a full time clerkship, this would also be a reasonable position to apply for. If you want to work at a firm in the same area as the position, it may have some margin benefits.

Any idea what caused the judge to need an additional part-time clerk? Is the position listed as half time because of funding but the work is really full time (I know of a few like that out there each year) Is there some big case/group of cases that the judge needs an extra hand on? Or, has the district seen a high volume of a particular type of case recently such that they need an extra clerk (will you find yourself working on social security cases for the entire term)? Bottom line, knowing why there is this need would be important to assessing whether the position is worth looking at.

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