Is clerking worth it? Forum

[WhiskeyGuy]

Just a minor point when talking about how "competitive" clerkships are, whether District or COA: my understanding is that hiring can be quirky and judges often have idiosyncratic preferences within the pool of top students. Impressive credentials are a prerequisite, but it's not like law school admissions where you can predict your results at specific schools with near-certainty based on your numbers.

Also, one big idiosyncratic preference is political ideology. Some judges don't care and will take smart kids no matter what, and others are pretty centrist and take people from both sides of the aisle, but you can bet Calabresi isn't taking anyone with FedSoc on their resume, and that Sutton isn't taking tons of ACS people.

On that topic, two things I've heard (I don't know firsthand if true or not):
1) If you apply for a 2nd clerkship after doing one, the political ideology of your first judge, especially if extreme in one direction, may automatically turn some judges off from even considering your application.
2) Scalia makes it a point to have one liberal clerk every term.

Scalia's admirable practice of hiring one liberal clerk each term has become less frequent in recent years.

[Aeroplane]

Scalia's admirable practice of hiring one liberal clerk each term has become less frequent in recent years.

Interesting. I wonder why that would be.

[D Brooks]

http://lawclerkaddict.blogspot.com/2007 ... chart.html

[270910]

http://lawclerkaddict.blogspot.com/2007 ... chart.html

Yeah, we know

[TTT-LS]

.

[D Brooks]

http://lawclerkaddict.blogspot.com/2007 ... chart.html

Most of that data is in grave danger of being obsolete. It comes from the heyday of pre-ITE biglaw hiring/compensation.

The SCOTUS clerk alum who I spoke with a UVA said clerkship bonuses won't be going down anytime soon. He's a partner at a DC firm.

[D Brooks]

http://lawclerkaddict.blogspot.com/2007 ... chart.html

Most of that data is in grave danger of being obsolete. It comes from the heyday of pre-ITE biglaw hiring/compensation.

Did your firm gladly allow you defer so you could clerk? Does your circuit's jurisdiction encompass the market you will be practicing in?

[270910]

http://lawclerkaddict.blogspot.com/2007 ... chart.html

Most of that data is in grave danger of being obsolete. It comes from the heyday of pre-ITE biglaw hiring/compensation.

Did your firm gladly allow you defer so you could clerk? Does your circuit's jurisdiction encompass the market you will be practicing in?

I'm not TTT-LS (a fact which bums me out every time I think of it), but I know for a fact that 99.99% of law firms who hire students competitive for clerkships gladly allow deferrals in one form or another and often even encourage students to clerk.

[all of this assumes federal article III clerkships]

[You Gotta Have Faith]

Sorry for the multiple posts y'all. Computer effed up