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Not trying to start an AA debate, just trying to get informed. When it comes to federal clerkships, particularly COA and competitive district courts, do judges strive for ethnic/racial diversity? I've seen people discuss a "URM boost" of sorts when it comes to firm hiring, but haven't noticed any reference to it with clerkships, so my guess is that there isn't one - I'm just asking to make sure. It's also occurred to me that this might be the sort of thing that varies from judge to judge, so maybe there's no definitive answer. In any event, whatever insight people have would be appreciated.

Anything even remotely resembling a shitshow or abuse of the anon feature gets the hammer. Just saying in advance. This is a good question, don't go there.

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There apparently was some report/survey recently saying that there was a serious dearth of URM fed clerks. The issue is there are just not a lot of URMs (hence the name) and of those URMs there are only a limited number who do well enough to even get a look. From what I have been told by my school is that if you are in the running (get grades in the ballpark) you are definitely going to be highly considered. I am talking federal here. It's not like they are willing to reach far down for a URM, they have no "quota" and its not like law firms where they could potentially lose business for not being diverse enough. Best you can do is get great grades and apply. I would highly recommend talking to CSO at your school when clerkship time rolls around.

Doritos wrote:There apparently was some report/survey recently saying that there was a serious dearth of URM fed clerks. The issue is there are just not a lot of URMs (hence the name) and of those URMs there are only a limited number who do well enough to even get a look. From what I have been told by my school is that if you are in the running (get grades in the ballpark) you are definitely going to be highly considered. I am talking federal here. It's not like they are willing to reach far down for a URM, they have no "quota" and its not like law firms where they could potentially lose business for not being diverse enough. Best you can do is get great grades and apply. I would highly recommend talking to CSO at your school when clerkship time rolls around.

What grades would be considered "in the ballpark" coming from HYS? Also I'm not 100% familiar with the timeline for applying to clerkships, so is it just 1L and 2L grades that get taken into account, or 3L grades as well?

Thanks for replying.

This will answer your timeline questions:
http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/l ... e?OpenForm

If you're applying during the summer between 2L and 3L for a clerkship that starts immediately after you graduate, judges will consider only your 1L and 2L grades.

Anonymous User wrote:

Doritos wrote:There apparently was some report/survey recently saying that there was a serious dearth of URM fed clerks. The issue is there are just not a lot of URMs (hence the name) and of those URMs there are only a limited number who do well enough to even get a look. From what I have been told by my school is that if you are in the running (get grades in the ballpark) you are definitely going to be highly considered. I am talking federal here. It's not like they are willing to reach far down for a URM, they have no "quota" and its not like law firms where they could potentially lose business for not being diverse enough. Best you can do is get great grades and apply. I would highly recommend talking to CSO at your school when clerkship time rolls around.

What grades would be considered "in the ballpark" coming from HYS? Also I'm not 100% familiar with the timeline for applying to clerkships, so is it just 1L and 2L grades that get taken into account, or 3L grades as well?

Thanks for replying.

I am not familiar what kind of grades you would need from HYS. I would talk to your clerkship office at whichever of those you go to. They will for sure have a rough breakdown

Doritos wrote:There apparently was some report/survey recently saying that there was a serious dearth of URM fed clerks. The issue is there are just not a lot of URMs (hence the name) and of those URMs there are only a limited number who do well enough to even get a look. From what I have been told by my school is that if you are in the running (get grades in the ballpark) you are definitely going to be highly considered. I am talking federal here. It's not like they are willing to reach far down for a URM, they have no "quota" and its not like law firms where they could potentially lose business for not being diverse enough. Best you can do is get great grades and apply. I would highly recommend talking to CSO at your school when clerkship time rolls around.

Yeah, this. Granted, I have a very small sample size to work from, but it doesn't seem to matter much. One of the nice things that life tenure (fed judges) or long-term appointment (many state judges) provides is insulation from caring what people think of you, lol.