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Any advice on what one should wear while interning at a federal Court of Appeals?

Business casual?

Suit + tie?

Sandals and sombrero?

What were the clerks wearing? Often chambers at COA are more casual than at District Courts (less interaction with the outside world). Full suit will be required when your judge is sitting (if you are allowed to sit with the clerks). Some judges have formal business attire requirements in chambers, some allow business casual. Some chambers are also good about letting interns dress down a bit, recognizing you might not have the appropriate attire yet and aren't getting paid. You'll really have to ask.

My COA was formal. The clerks were expected to wear business attire every day. Externs were encouraged to wear suits if they had them, but business casual was tolerated if they didn't. The "attire formality" expectations were higher for 2Ls/3Ls than 1Ls. It would certainly have been considered appropriate to ask the judge about this before starting, or during the first week of the externship; I recommend that you do so.

FWIW, my district court judge would've been fine with your sandals and sombrero proposal, as long as you weren't in court. If we weren't in court during that clerkship, we were in jeans; flip-flops were fine, too.

ETA Lurker gives the conventional wisdom. My circuit judge's formality was partly because we would have guests dropping by - other judges, government officials, etc., and he wanted his chambers to look professional in order to make introductions. On the other hand, my district court judge just wasn't really concerned with appearances, and wasn't particularly troubled if another judge or prosecutor or counsel saw us outside of court, during the workday, in casual attire.

tell us which judge and we'll let u know for sure

Wear suit the first day, then dress however the clerks are dressing.

RVP11 wrote:Wear suit the first day, then dress however the clerks are dressing.

This, or just email and ask the clerks the week before you start.

The chambers I interned for (CoA) was business casual, with suits on days we were sitting or having visitors, but we knew these days well in advance.

I would ask before starting.

RVP11 wrote:Wear suit the first day, then dress however the clerks are dressing.

This is a perfectly reasonable way to do this. The only reason I'd disagree is if the clerks are wearing suits, and if there's some reason the OP can't (e.g. doesn't have the budget to buy enough suits yet). My COA judge - who required clerks to wear suits - explicitly told externs not to worry about it...but only after it became clear they couldn't. Meanwhile, this wasn't clear to me until midway through my clerkship, so if an extern had asked me, I'd have told them (apparently erroneously) that suits were required.

Suit the first day, then ask.

dress for the job you want, not the job you have

so... Black robe

Like others have said, I would ask before starting. In my experience, supervisors appreciated/were impressed by the fact that I asked about the dress code. It shows judgment or something .

If you can't or don't want to ask before you start, I would wear a suit the first day and then ask your supervisor on the first day.

You should definitely ask at some point soon, though. As others have pointed out, what might be ok on most days may not be ok on other days or in other circumstances. You don't want to be the one person in the courtroom without a jacket.