What would happen if the judge you're clerking for dies? Forum

[Anonymous User]

(God forbid). This is a legitimate concern for me. Senior judge on a decent Fed. Cir. court. 1Ls, 2Ls, feel free to speculate, but really appreciate if there are any 3Ls or post grads who have been in a similar situation/experienced similar concerns.

Thanks in advance.

[2LLLL]

You throw yourself on his burning funeral pyre like an Indian bride.

Actually a good question- since such a judge would have to be confirmed by the Senate, I'd presume you'd work with other judges in the circuit who would need additional clerks to handle the increased caseload

[Anonymous User]

You throw yourself on his burning funeral pyre like an Indian bride.

Actually a good question- since such a judge would have to be confirmed by the Senate, I'd presume you'd work with other judges in the circuit who would need additional clerks to handle the increased caseload

OP here. I'm pretty sure senior judges are already "replaced" (a new judge is nominated when a judge moves to senior status). Of course IF I accepted, and IF this happened, I would contact every judge on the circuit to see if they would help out.

Also, as a side note: I understand clerking for a senior judge may not carry the same amount of prestige, but what about bonuses? i.e. $50K bonus for a circuit clerkship regardless if a senior or active judge?

I wish lawclerkaddict.com was more active right now.

[Unemployed]

You get assigned to a different judge, and that judge makes a joke about how s/he never would have hired you in the first place. For God's sake, you went to Ohio State!

[Kohinoor]

You take his place.

[reasonable_man]

You take his place.

This.

[OGR3]

This isn't that rare. William Rehnquist was dead for 2 1/2 years before his official "death". The clerks just operated an animatronic replica from behind a curtain.

[St.Remy]

This isn't that rare. William Rehnquist was dead for 2 1/2 years before his official "death". The clerks just operated an animatronic replica from behind a curtain.

You were supposed to pay no attention to them.

[Big Shrimpin]

When I read OPs post, all I could think about was Weekend at Bernie's...

[vamedic03]

You throw yourself on his burning funeral pyre like an Indian bride.

Actually a good question- since such a judge would have to be confirmed by the Senate, I'd presume you'd work with other judges in the circuit who would need additional clerks to handle the increased caseload

OP here. I'm pretty sure senior judges are already "replaced" (a new judge is nominated when a judge moves to senior status). Of course IF I accepted, and IF this happened, I would contact every judge on the circuit to see if they would help out.

Also, as a side note: I understand clerking for a senior judge may not carry the same amount of prestige, but what about bonuses? i.e. $50K bonus for a circuit clerkship regardless if a senior or active judge?

I wish lawclerkaddict.com was more active right now.

As to prestige - my understanding is that it really depends on the judge. Example - Judge Ellis of the EDVA is senior status but extremely prestigious (he's known for extremely high GPA's, esp for D.Ct.)

[Borhas]

(God forbid). This is a legitimate concern for me. Senior judge on a decent Fed. Cir. court. 1Ls, 2Ls, feel free to speculate, but really appreciate if there are any 3Ls or post grads who have been in a similar situation/experienced similar concerns.

Thanks in advance.

do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to jail for murder

[Kohinoor]

You take his place.

This.

It actually leads to pretty fucked up incentives for SCOTUS justices. In good health, they just choose the clerks that pose the least threat to them in hand to hand combat. It's only in their later years that they start selecting ideologically aligned clerks that are also prime physical specimens. Scalia is in a particularly tough spot. Whichever clerk he chooses has to be a paragon of textualism and originalism. If he fails to elucidate the necessary qualities during the vetting process, then he has to kill that guy and then survive at all costs until the next clerking season since if he dies without a suitable clerk, Obama will just insert a liberal minority in his spot.

[totalidiot]

I would have thought the answer to this question would be obvious:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/suprem ... lia,18426/

[James Bond]

You take his place.

[Renzo]

Happened someone who spoke at my 1L orientation. He hit the clerkship market again and worked the intervening year

[CanadianWolf]

May depend upon the cause of death.

[Borhas]

www.top-law-schools.com.org