Top Law Schools

For 1L summer, is interning with any federal judge (district court, magistrates, etc.) in a less populous state better than none at all?

I am a 1L as well, but I am willing to say anything legal is better than burger king.

District is better than magistrate. Other than that...doesn't matter where other than rural districts may have slightly less interesting cases for you to talk about during OCI.

It's better than not doing anything AT ALL, that's certain. If you are asking whether it is better to intern with a federal judge in Wyoming rather than a state supreme court judge in Illinois or California, then the answer is no, I don't think it's "better" as far as whether an employer will consider it a more valuable experience. You should be more concerned about distinctions between personal preferences between appellate and trial courts, locations, and judges than anything else.

I'm deciding between state trial court judge in NY and federal magistrate on west coast, but not CA.

Are you going to have to rent a place in both places?

Anonymous User wrote:I'm deciding between state trial court judge in NY and federal magistrate on west coast, but not CA.

Definitely magistrate. Have you observed each yet? There is a huge difference. I've yet to talk to anyone that had a good state trial court experience. They are overworked and there is generally much less writing (or at least well-refined writing.) Although, if the judge is local and you want to work there after...maybe...but not in NYC. It's so big/busy there'd be little networking benefit.

blowhard wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I'm deciding between state trial court judge in NY and federal magistrate on west coast, but not CA.

Definitely magistrate. Have you observed each yet? There is a huge difference. I've yet to talk to anyone that had a good state trial court experience. They are overworked and there is generally much less writing (or at least well-refined writing.) Although, if the judge is local and you want to work there after...maybe...but not in NYC. It's so big/busy there'd be little networking benefit.

FWIW, I interned with a federal magistrate judge in what would be considered a more rural state and it was an excellent experience, couldn't have really asked for much more. Worked on a number of interesting summary judgment motions, and although the judge I interned for did not have any trials for the summer (parties can consent to trial by magistrate, by the way), I was able - and encouraged - to observe trials that other Art. III judges had going on in the courthouse.

Employers are likely to want to see whether you had a substantive experience, first and foremost.

If you're asking for a traditional hierarchy for choosing, then a District Court Judge obviously rests above a magistrate.

Regardless, your 1L summer is going to be less about "pretentiousness," and more about you taking valuable, practical "experience" from it. The questions are going to largely be about what kind of assignments you had, how you liked it, etc. They're really not going to ask how many times your judge was featured in the NY Times, or whether he was a Supreme Court feeder.

Do you want to practice in CA? Are you from there?

The fed judge is in my home state, so I will probably just live at home and sublet my current apartment that I have through the school. I have been living a somewhat bi-coastal life for the last 10 years, so I would say I have an equal chance of ending up in either state.

At this point, I think I am leaning towards the magistrate judge.