Rank COA clerkship selectivity/prestige Forum

[attractive_NUisance]

Can we rank SCOTUS clerkships please? Not sure which one is the most prestigious and I don't want to pick the wrong one and look like a fool... Roberts?

[Anonymous User]

Austin and NO> Chicago

Easily

But Austin doesn't have COA, only district

Um... Only if by no COA judges, you mean three COA judges (Benavides, Owen, and Higginbotham)?

[Tangerine Gleam]

Can we rank SCOTUS clerkships please? Not sure which one is the most prestigious and I don't want to pick the wrong one and look like a fool... Roberts?

A fair concern. Let me speak from experience -- you do not want to sashay into the application process uninformed and pick the wrong SCOTUS justice for your clerkship. I've made the mistake once, and I hope to not do it again. Clerking for the wrong SCOTUS justice can be a real embarrassment, both professionally and to your family.

[SchopenhauerFTW]

US News is ruining this country.

[Dignan]

Can we rank SCOTUS clerkships please? Not sure which one is the most prestigious and I don't want to pick the wrong one and look like a fool... Roberts?

A fair concern. Let me speak from experience -- you do not want to sashay into the application process uninformed and pick the wrong SCOTUS justice for your clerkship. I've made the mistake once, and I hope to not do it again. Clerking for the wrong SCOTUS justice can be a real embarrassment, both professionally and to your family.

This advice is credited. Whatever you do, don't clerk for RoberTTTs. The percentage of his clerks that land NLJ 250 jobs is way down over the past three years. True, most of his clerks find some form of employment, but the actual employment percentage is misleading because Roberts hires his ex-clerks to mow his lawn and do his laundry.

[Borhas]

Austin and NO> Chicago

Easily

But Austin doesn't have COA, only district

Um... Only if by no COA judges, you mean three COA judges (Benavides, Owen, and Higginbotham)?

Whatever, I couldn't name 3 less prestigious/selective COA judges if I tried

[Anonymous User]

I agree with most what has been said above. As has been said before, prestige for its own sake is a fool's errand. Do something that makes you happy, or that gets you something specific that you want (prestige does not count in this regard).

OP: explain why you want to clerk, what sort of clerking experience you want, and what you want to do afterwards -- both short-term and long-term. If you think you are competitive for SCOTUS, say so. Then we can give you some meaningful advice about where to look. But if your only inquiry is "tell me which judges or circuits are the most prestigious," I am not going to help.

How would you know if you are competitive for SCOTUS? Isn't that based, mostly, off of which COA judge you work for? So shouldn't you be thinking whether you are competitive for X feeder judge first? Let's say you are at Y: though your chances of getting a federal clerkship may be higher than other schools, how do you know you are a good candidate/bad candidate for SCOTUS?

Pretty sure the school will contact you if you are competitive for SCOTUS.

Anon here. When you say "pretty sure," do you mean 100 percent? When does the school contact you? Before or after your COA clerkship? What if the school doesn't contact you, can you be the persistent one? Anyway, back to the original question: what makes one from YSH competitive for SCOTUS? Grades, coursework, law review, letters/phonecalls, past awards ie rhodes? What can be some negative factors aside from bad grades and no law review?

[hume85]

US News is ruining this country.

+1

[overandout]

I agree with most what has been said above. As has been said before, prestige for its own sake is a fool's errand. Do something that makes you happy, or that gets you something specific that you want (prestige does not count in this regard).

OP: explain why you want to clerk, what sort of clerking experience you want, and what you want to do afterwards -- both short-term and long-term. If you think you are competitive for SCOTUS, say so. Then we can give you some meaningful advice about where to look. But if your only inquiry is "tell me which judges or circuits are the most prestigious," I am not going to help.

How would you know if you are competitive for SCOTUS? Isn't that based, mostly, off of which COA judge you work for? So shouldn't you be thinking whether you are competitive for X feeder judge first? Let's say you are at Y: though your chances of getting a federal clerkship may be higher than other schools, how do you know you are a good candidate/bad candidate for SCOTUS?

Pretty sure the school will contact you if you are competitive for SCOTUS.

Anon here. When you say "pretty sure," do you mean 100 percent? When does the school contact you? Before or after your COA clerkship? What if the school doesn't contact you, can you be the persistent one? Anyway, back to the original question: what makes one from YSH competitive for SCOTUS? Grades, coursework, law review, letters/phonecalls, past awards ie rhodes? What can be some negative factors aside from bad grades and no law review?

I'll put it this way. I go to CLS, and one of my professors clerked for SCOTUS. Someone asked him what they had to have grades-wise in order to have a shot at clerking there, and how they know what judges are "feeder" judges. His verbatim response was "don't worry about it, if you have any chance at clerking at that level, the school will not let you remain unaware of that for very long." That's the extent of my knowledge, but it seems pretty obvious. These schools thrive on reputation and perceived prestige. A SCOTUS clerkship is basically the pinnacle of prestige in the legal profession and makes the school look good. If you want an educated guess, I'd assume you need top 1% grades, legitimately rigorous coursework, and LR. If you're that concerned about it, ask your school's clerkship office. And the school would almost certainly contact you during 2L year, if not a little bit before, since they would be pointing you in the direction of feeders.