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So, I've begun pursuing clerkships. I have sufficient grades and resume to get a decent Court of Appeals position somewhere, but they're not good enough to make me a "chooser".

What are the merits of going plan v off plan for a student in my position?

CTA?

I'm a 1L, so I may be asking a stupid question, but why can't you do both? That is, submit early apps for the judges who hire before plan, and if that does not pan out, do the same for the plan judges.

imchuckbass58 wrote:I'm a 1L, so I may be asking a stupid question, but why can't you do both? That is, submit early apps for the judges who hire before plan, and if that does not pan out, do the same for the plan judges.

There's two complicating factors that I forgot to explain:

1) The judge(s) in whom I am most interested stick to the plan.
2) My school tries to match students to particular judges, and they stick to plan.

Also, the off-plan process would (if successful) involve travel during the school year. On the other hand, it would be a load off to complete the process.

.

I think you have sort of the wrong sense about how the clerkship process works. It's really not an either/or thing. There are some judges (a significant minority) who hire 2Ls/rising 3Ls off plan. (I'm referring to the judges who hire well off plan, in the summer or even spring, as opposed to the judges who hire a week or so before the plan date.) Almost all of these judges are really only hiring people being fed to them by people they know (professors usually). I would say there are only maybe 5-10 COA judges in the country who might interview you off plan just from receiving a cold application. So unless you have a professor who knows a specific judge well, there is not much of a choice and you will probably end up interviewing on plan.

If you do have a connection, or want to send applications to those few judges who solicit all applications early, then I think you should apply early with the understanding it has a very low chance of success. Since your self-appraisal is that you can't be a "chooser," I don't know why you wouldn't want to maximize your chances. Also, most of the off-plan hiring of rising 3Ls occurs during the summer, so you likely wouldn't have to miss school time to travel.