DC Court of Appeals Clerkships Forum

[Anonymous User]

One of my professors mentioned it as somewhere I might want to apply, so I'm just trying to gather information.

Would the DC COA be better than a "less prestigious" district court? Anyone know how these are looked at by employers? I realize it's not on par with D.C. Cir. (not even close) or even the D.D.C., but is it helpful in getting future jobs? Does it compare with the more prestigious SSCs, or no?

[Detrox]

Edited for misunderstanding.

[LawIdiot86]

One of my professors mentioned it as somewhere I might want to apply, so I'm just trying to gather information.

Would the DC COA be better than a "less prestigious" district court? Anyone know how these are looked at by employers? I realize it's not on par with D.C. Cir. (not even close) or even the D.D.C., but is it helpful in getting future jobs? Does it compare with the more prestigious SSCs, or no?

At my T14, the GPA range for a random district court is at the higher end of the top third. The DC COA range is all between the top half and beginning of top third. The Cir. range is top %5 and the DC Superior Court is middle third.

[LawIdiot86]

One of my professors mentioned it as somewhere I might want to apply, so I'm just trying to gather information.

Would the DC COA be better than a "less prestigious" district court? Anyone know how these are looked at by employers? I realize it's not on par with D.C. Cir. (not even close) or even the D.D.C., but is it helpful in getting future jobs? Does it compare with the more prestigious SSCs, or no?

Troll? CoA > Dist. Cts. > SSCs. DC CoA one of the hardest of the CoA's to get as well. Need top grades (>5%) from top school generally.

He Means DC COA, not DC Cir. DC COA is the same as SSC.

[traydeuce]

I'm not a DC lawyer (yet) so take this with a grain of salt. Maybe clerking there is an in at some really middling DC firms. But the DC COA is a state supreme court like any other, doing a generally poor job of figuring out their local criminal law, criminal procedure, etc. etc. There are many state supreme courts that are better, like New Jersey and New York, and, though the DC COA just might be some sort of entry into DC firm/public interest work, to the rest of the world any district ct. clerkship will look better.

[johndhi]

I'm not a DC lawyer (yet) so take this with a grain of salt. Maybe clerking there is an in at some really middling DC firms. But the DC COA is a state supreme court like any other, doing a generally poor job of figuring out their local criminal law, criminal procedure, etc. etc. There are many state supreme courts that are better, like New Jersey and New York, and, though the DC COA just might be some sort of entry into DC firm/public interest work, to the rest of the world any district ct. clerkship will look better.

Gah, who are you, Christopher Langdell? give me a break. I'd agree that you're right when it comes to job opportunities, but I think you have a skewed view of the court system.

[traydeuce]

I'm not a DC lawyer (yet) so take this with a grain of salt. Maybe clerking there is an in at some really middling DC firms. But the DC COA is a state supreme court like any other, doing a generally poor job of figuring out their local criminal law, criminal procedure, etc. etc. There are many state supreme courts that are better, like New Jersey and New York, and, though the DC COA just might be some sort of entry into DC firm/public interest work, to the rest of the world any district ct. clerkship will look better.

Gah, who are you, Christopher Langdell? give me a break. I'd agree that you're right when it comes to job opportunities, but I think you have a skewed view of the court system.

I don't mean to suggest that there's some brooding omnipresent crim law out there that the DC. Ct. App is doing a sucky job of finding, just that they do a poor job of explicating what they think their crim law is, or writing opinions well enough for federal judges, when doing habeas review, to tell if claims were adjudicated on the merits or defaulted or what the hell's going on. It's mostly a lack of clarity. And yeah, maybe a lack of coherence or predictability.

[Anonymous User]

I'm not a DC lawyer (yet) so take this with a grain of salt. Maybe clerking there is an in at some really middling DC firms. But the DC COA is a state supreme court like any other, doing a generally poor job of figuring out their local criminal law, criminal procedure, etc. etc. There are many state supreme courts that are better, like New Jersey and New York, and, though the DC COA just might be some sort of entry into DC firm/public interest work, to the rest of the world any district ct. clerkship will look better.

Gah, who are you, Christopher Langdell? give me a break. I'd agree that you're right when it comes to job opportunities, but I think you have a skewed view of the court system.

I've observed arguments at the DC COA and researched criminal law there, and I think his view of the court system is spot-on.