On Plan Clerkships 2011 Forum

[Anonymous User]

I guess I'm just looking for some hope to cling on to. I have one COA interview, but I am not a particularly good interviewer -- I can be hit or miss. If I had the stats for a COA interview (received out of the blue, no connections, etc.), I guess I was hoping for a district court interview somewhere.

The other frustrating thing is that my recommenders have been making calls since the summer to judges that they know, but none of those connections came through in the end. I guess it's the hyper-competitive nature of the process, and I know numerous applicants have multiple recommenders calling for them, but it doesn't alleviate the frustration re: the process.

Anyways, no point in thinking about this any longer. Guess I should just focus on knocking this interview out of the park next week.

Research the guy, a lot. Happily my first interview is with an ex-prof, so I have a huge paper trail of articles to look at. Plus the textbook he wrote that I used in a 1L class, and all the opinions. I just hope he doesn't say, "so, what's your least favorite recently decided case," because that just so happens to be something he wrote that I was quite furious over. I guess I'll find something else to dislike. Maybe Breyer perpetuating the Asahi split in Nicastro. That's a pretty safe topic.

[traydeuce]

Some people do fellowships, apparently. I have no idea what that means, but it happens. A lot of judges like to see a year of something after school. Emmett Sullivan, for example.

[pasteurizedmilk]

Some people do fellowships, apparently. I have no idea what that means, but it happens. A lot of judges like to see a year of something after school. Emmett Sullivan, for example.

Fellowships? Interesting.

My concern is that applying to clerk for the year after graduation both makes it hard to get a LOR from a practitioner (bit awkward to ask somebody at the firm after 8 months or whatever).

[Anonymous User]

This is definitely a frustrating and somewhat humbling experience. I'm top 1% at my T20 school, LR, at least two outstanding recs and one good one. Applied to 150ish judges total, got all of one D. Ct. interview. I'm glad I got that, but I have to admit I was expecting more. Probably doesn't help that none of my recommenders had judicial connections... I didn't realize what a big role phone calls can play in this process.

Ah well. C'est la vie.

[traydeuce]

Some people do fellowships, apparently. I have no idea what that means, but it happens. A lot of judges like to see a year of something after school. Emmett Sullivan, for example.

Fellowships? Interesting.

My concern is that applying to clerk for the year after graduation both makes it hard to get a LOR from a practitioner (bit awkward to ask somebody at the firm after 8 months or whatever).

Yeah, that's... possibly the case, although the firm wants you to get that experience, I would think. Though a lot of firms aren't crazy about you coming in for a gap year. There's also just the possibility that you might encounter better recommenders as a 3L. Some seminars are hard to get into, and only 3Ls get them. So currently, I've got a fairly prestigious academic nominated to the 7th Cir. (but who isn't going anywhere), a pretty well known guy who Clinton would have placed on the D.C. Cir. if not for the GOP taking over the Senate in 1994, and a judge on the Court of Federal Claims. This is good, but I'm taking seminars with Bill Eskridge and Randy Barnett in the spring, and that - particularly Eskridge, I don't know that many judges are actually fond of Barnett, outside of Justice Thomas and perhaps Rogers Brown - is a lot better. I wish I was taking the seminar they offered with Paul Clement, but I'm just not into the subject matter. So, the thought's crossed my mind that doing a district for 2012 and attempting to cash out in 2013 may not be an awful idea. Ultimately though, I only have 1 district interview at the moment, so that probably isn't happening.

[traydeuce]

This is definitely a frustrating and somewhat humbling experience. I'm top 1% at my T20 school, LR, at least two outstanding recs and one good one. Applied to 150ish judges total, got all of one D. Ct. interview. I'm glad I got that, but I have to admit I was expecting more. Probably doesn't help that none of my recommenders had judicial connections... I didn't realize what a big role phone calls can play in this process.

Ah well. C'est la vie.

Everything I got on the COA level came with a call. And in some cases a very lengthy chat. Doesn't your school at least have a clerkship committee that makes calls for people whose recommenders aren't so connected? That's our set-up.

[Anonymous User]

This is definitely a frustrating and somewhat humbling experience. I'm top 1% at my T20 school, LR, at least two outstanding recs and one good one. Applied to 150ish judges total, got all of one D. Ct. interview. I'm glad I got that, but I have to admit I was expecting more. Probably doesn't help that none of my recommenders had judicial connections... I didn't realize what a big role phone calls can play in this process.

Ah well. C'est la vie.

Everything I got on the COA level came with a call. And in some cases a very lengthy chat. Doesn't your school at least have a clerkship committee that makes calls for people whose recommenders aren't so connected? That's our set-up.

We have a clerkship advisor, but I'm not aware of them making phone calls. To be fair, I was a slacker and didn't get my shit together re: clerkships until fairly recently, so I'm sure I missed out on numerous opportunities. I just thought I'd end up with more from these Plan applications.

[traydeuce]

We have a clerkship advisor, but I'm not aware of them making phone calls. To be fair, I was a slacker and didn't get my shit together re: clerkships until fairly recently, so I'm sure I missed out on numerous opportunities. I just thought I'd end up with more from these Plan applications.

I see. My life the past few weeks consisted of editing and re-editing my list of judges to call. And it kind of worked; I wisely picked a bunch of judges in circuits I had shots at, and/or judges who had hired here a decent amount, and now I have a good number of interviews.

[Rararattlers]

Anyone heard anything from the 11th, particularly Anderson, Hull, Wilson? Old LawClerkAddict comments suggested some of them (e.g., Hull) hire late. Is it worth waiting around on? I'm currently in a district court clerkship, and I need to let my judge know whether or not I'm staying for a second year... Right now I'm operating on the assumption that I'm taking that second year (which I'm happy with, though a COA would have been great, obviously).

[Anonymous User]

Anyone heard anything from the 11th, particularly Anderson, Hull, Wilson? Old LawClerkAddict comments suggested some of them (e.g., Hull) hire late. Is it worth waiting around on? I'm currently in a district court clerkship, and I need to let my judge know whether or not I'm staying for a second year... Right now I'm operating on the assumption that I'm taking that second year (which I'm happy with, though a COA would have been great, obviously).

That's the one place that I've seen absolutely nothing about here, though maybe someone said something about Barkett. I'm interested in that, because I transferred from a southern school, went to school down south (although all within Fourth Circuit states, but there's some commonality there), and am a huge Marcus fan. I imagine Marcus has made calls, but I can see the ones you mentioned being behind. In your case, though, couldn't you have moved to apply off-plan?

[Rararattlers]

That's the one place that I've seen absolutely nothing about here, though maybe someone said something about Barkett. I'm interested in that, because I transferred from a southern school, went to school down south (although all within Fourth Circuit states, but there's some commonality there), and am a huge Marcus fan. I imagine Marcus has made calls, but I can see the ones you mentioned being behind. In your case, though, couldn't you have moved to apply off-plan?

I did apply off-plan (with the exception of Wilson, who I think wanted online apps only), but I know at least with Anderson he still goes by the OSCAR dateline, even with alumni. But I was still otherwise late (spring would have been better, obviously), but I knew I was going to apply to only a few anyway due to other practical limitations I face in my particular situation...

[quiver]

and now I have a good number of interviews

And you were worried...

I'll (hopefully) be going through this process in a year; just wanted to say that you guys are all in an amazing position to even be applying for clerkships.

Good luck to all!

[lolwat]

To those still waiting, I offer this: a few people in my graduating class struck out as 3Ls, but landed great clerkships for the year after graduation.

This happened to me.

'cept I have no answer to the "what do they do for a year" question. Yet.

[pasteurizedmilk]

To those still waiting, I offer this: a few people in my graduating class struck out as 3Ls, but landed great clerkships for the year after graduation.

This happened to me.

'cept I have no answer to the "what do they do for a year" question. Yet.

Hmm.....I didn't know that's what GTL meant. Getting a clerkship for down the road isn't the sort of striking out I was wondering about, sadly.

[pasteurizedmilk]

I didn't even know you could apply for clerkships as a 2L.

[Anonymous User]

anyone here get Fed. Cir. calls? Got a Reyna snail mail ding today.

[traydeuce]

anyone here get Fed. Cir. calls? Got a Reyna snail mail ding today.

Someone got four up-thread. Monstrous.

[an ll.m.]

Traydeuce - is SGB the recommender you mentioned?

Either way, congrats on the interviews.


As to the people who whiffed this time around, I'll throw this out - and it's been said already - but 1 year out, you can land VERY good spots. I went to a lower-level school (then got an LL.M.) and I'm now clerking, albeit in a district court. I'd also add that the Federal Circuit judges and several 3d Circuit (at least D.B. Smith and Hardiman) prefer people with experience. The extra year of - here comes the buzzword - networking really helps out. The judges knowing YOU is every bit as important, in my experience, as them knowing your recommenders.

[leobowski]

1/5 so far. Not complaining.

[Anonymous User]

anyone hear from N.D. Ill./C.D. Ill./7th Cir. staff attorneys?

[Anonymous User]

Traydeuce - is SGB the recommender you mentioned?

Either way, congrats on the interviews.


As to the people who whiffed this time around, I'll throw this out - and it's been said already - but 1 year out, you can land VERY good spots. I went to a lower-level school (then got an LL.M.) and I'm now clerking, albeit in a district court. I'd also add that the Federal Circuit judges and several 3d Circuit (at least D.B. Smith and Hardiman) prefer people with experience. The extra year of - here comes the buzzword - networking really helps out. The judges knowing YOU is every bit as important, in my experience, as them knowing your recommenders.

No, not SGB. For a second I thought you meant Stephen G. Breyer. I was like, he doesn't teach at Georgetown...

As to D.B. Smith and Hardiman, that's interesting, because I'm a big fan of Smith and do have at least one district court interview in Philly lined up. (Hardiman is good, but less so, though I had a lot of people call him for strategic reasons and nothing all the same.) You can add Barry to that list, she flatly states it on OSCAR. I don't know that I distinctly prefer a Smith over the COA judges I have calls from, so it probably doesn't matter. Barry's a minor feeder, so... even so, at that point you're thinking about the 2% chance she'll hire you, of all the district clerks who apply to her, multiplied by the insanely low chance that you'll be the third person she sends to the Court. It's not really even worth thinking about.

[Anonymous User]

I received.....ZERO emails or calls. I applied to over 100 district judges and I knew it was a longshot but still, can't help but have a day of disappointment. I applied very broadly so I was hoping to hear from some real small towns but hey, what can you do? Onward...

[Anonymous User]

Well so much for EIC of flagship journal and top 10% grades. Bummer.

[Anonymous User]

got three CAFC calls, four (total) district court calls.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone hear from Droney yesterday?