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Clerk question
Posted: Sun Jul 08, 2012 8:55 pm
by Scotusnerd
Ok, I realize I'm a bit early on this, but I am curious.
How does one go about figuring out which professors are friends with, say, judges, and might go to bat for you? This doesn't seem to be the sort of thing that is common knowledge. Do you just hear about it through the grape vine, or do the career services people know, or do you just happen to make friends with the right professor at the right time to land the clerkship of your dreams?
Re: Clerk question
Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 4:32 pm
by memaha
Scotusnerd wrote:Ok, I realize I'm a bit early on this, but I am curious.
How does one go about figuring out which professors are friends with, say, judges, and might go to bat for you? This doesn't seem to be the sort of thing that is common knowledge. Do you just hear about it through the grape vine, or do the career services people know, or do you just happen to make friends with the right professor at the right time to land the clerkship of your dreams?
You start to get a pretty good idea who are the heavy-hitter professors by the middle of your 1L year. These will most likely be former SCOTUS clerks, or any other federal ct clerk. Your school should also have a dean/asst dean that deals specifically with judicial clerkships/internships, as well as a clerkship committee consisting of professors who are willing to work with you and provide guidance/letters of rec/so on and so forth. Also even if you happen to hit it off with a professor that doesn't seem like they are involved in the clerkship process, it never hurts to ask if they have any advice or tips to give you, or maybe they can introduce you to another professor. HTH
Re: Clerk question
Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 5:19 pm
by vamedic03
memaha wrote:Scotusnerd wrote:Ok, I realize I'm a bit early on this, but I am curious.
How does one go about figuring out which professors are friends with, say, judges, and might go to bat for you? This doesn't seem to be the sort of thing that is common knowledge. Do you just hear about it through the grape vine, or do the career services people know, or do you just happen to make friends with the right professor at the right time to land the clerkship of your dreams?
You start to get a pretty good idea who are the heavy-hitter professors by the middle of your 1L year. These will most likely be former SCOTUS clerks, or any other federal ct clerk. Your school should also have a dean/asst dean that deals specifically with judicial clerkships/internships, as well as a clerkship committee consisting of professors who are willing to work with you and provide guidance/letters of rec/so on and so forth. Also even if you happen to hit it off with a professor that doesn't seem like they are involved in the clerkship process, it never hurts to ask if they have any advice or tips to give you, or maybe they can introduce you to another professor. HTH
It's not about "heavy-hitter professors." It's about professors who know you well and will go to bat for you. It's not about whether or not that particular professor has clerked. I would take an awesome recommendation from a junior faculty member who is excited and enthusiastic about me over a "heavy-hitter." And, it's worth noting that there are plenty of "heavy-hitter" faculty members who never clerked.