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Hi guys, I had an interview on Monday for a summer externship with a fed judge. He said that my duties would be mostly clerical and that he usually does not have externs do any legal writing. Is this a red flag or is there a good way to spin this low level of responsibility in future interviews? Also, if I extern part time for the judge, would this hurt in terms of getting another position over the summer where I would actually get to do legal writing?
BTW if it matters I'm a 1L at a t30 school and my grades for 1st semester put me top 1/3. Thanks

It doesn't matter much what you do 1L, as long as it is legal.
You can spin, but if you didn't actually do any legal work, it is going to come out in interviews. I was asked about the different projects I had worked on, and it was good to have things to talk about.
Also, frankly, you could use the research and writing practice. And it is infinitely better than LRW when it is for real.

I'd much rather work for a state trial court judge and do legal work than work for this guy. I say dump it.

Are there opportunities for using the judge's name and recommendation down the road?

Hey OP here, thanks for the responses. The judge seemed really nice and he is very highly regarded from what I have heard, so he would probably be a good guy to know down the road. I just don't know if the somewhat prestigious title of a fed jud extern would compensate for probably not doing that much substantive work

Anonymous User wrote:Hey OP here, thanks for the responses. The judge seemed really nice and he is very highly regarded from what I have heard, so he would probably be a good guy to know down the road.

meh. Better to get a 2L SA

Anonymous User wrote:I just don't know if the somewhat prestigious title of a fed jud extern would compensate for probably not doing that much substantive work

no

Run away from this one.