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How much worse, regarding prestige, is a magistrate judge compared to a district judge in a state's federal district court?

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The advice I have heard from the clerkship person in my careers office is that that there is no real prestige factor when it comes to judicial externships. There is really just getting one or not getting one. Getting one (any one) is good. Firms are more interested in the fact that you got the experience. They might also like the fact that you know a judge if you want to be a litigator, but even this is not such a big deal.

probably not as interesting work, but probably no discernible difference in future job prospects. Looking over sample resumes of 2Ls on career services, they don't even indicate whether or not the judge they interned for was a magistrate judge. They jsut say intern to "the honorable x, Federal District for the S.D.N.Y...."

markymark wrote:probably not as interesting work, but probably no discernible difference in future job prospects. Looking over sample resumes of 2Ls on career services, they don't even indicate whether or not the judge they interned for was a magistrate judge. They jsut say intern to "the honorable x, Federal District for the S.D.N.Y...."

I'm curious why you say the bolded: in my (limited) experience, the types of cases assigned to magistrate judges vary little if any from the cases their Art. III counterparts handle. From what I've seen, courts often divvy up the docket based on the relevant experience/interest of the judges, rather than status.

Anonymous Loser wrote:

markymark wrote:probably not as interesting work, but probably no discernible difference in future job prospects. Looking over sample resumes of 2Ls on career services, they don't even indicate whether or not the judge they interned for was a magistrate judge. They jsut say intern to "the honorable x, Federal District for the S.D.N.Y...."

I'm curious why you say the bolded: in my (limited) experience, the types of cases assigned to magistrate judges vary little if any from the cases their Art. III counterparts handle. From what I've seen, courts often divvy up the docket based on the relevant experience/interest of the judges, rather than status.

There are some slight differences, but generally it is the same work. For a Magistrate Judge to hear a case, there must be an agreement between the parties to hear it in front of a judge (which is almost always, if not always, freely given). They also have some restrictions as to what they can do with felony cases.

If you want to see the powers of the Magistrate Judges in the USC, it's 28 USC 636.