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Sup

Thanks for taking questions. Mine are pretty basic:

1) Did you clerk straight out of law school?
2) Law school/standing stats (e.g., HYS/CCN/MVPB/DGNC/Other; top 5/10/30/50/100%; Law Review/Other Journal; Published Note/E-board of journal)?
3) Did you apply on-cycle?
4) Did you apply widely both in type of court (state, dct, coa) and geographically?
4) How did you choose who to ask for recommendations?

spaacecdt wrote:Thanks for taking questions. Mine are pretty basic:

1) Did you clerk straight out of law school?
2) Law school/standing stats (e.g., HYS/CCN/MVPB/DGNC/Other; top 5/10/30/50/100%; Law Review/Other Journal; Published Note/E-board of journal)?
3) Did you apply on-cycle?
4) Did you apply widely both in type of court (state, dct, coa) and geographically?
4) How did you choose who to ask for recommendations?

Not OP, but I will be clerking in the C.D. Cal. this coming term, and none of your questions require that I be currently clerking for an answer, so...

1) Yes, I will be.
2) T20 school. Top 1%. Law Review. Published Note. No editorial board position.
3) Yes, I only applied on plan, which was a huge mistake in retrospect, and I was very fortunate that I ended up with my clerkship. Start applying early. As in, right now. Many judges no longer follow the plan.
4) I applied only to federal district and appellate clerkships, as I believed that my credentials would land me one of those. Geographically, I basically applied everywhere, from Florida to Alaska.
5) I chose professors that I had developed a relationship with and in whose classes I had done well. I TAed for one of my recommenders, and for the other two I performed very well in their classes and worked in a clinic they were involved with.

You suggest applying right now? Before 2L Spring grades? It was recommended to me to wait until at least then. top ~3% low t14 here/

Also - to both of you guys -

Do you have geographic ties to CDCA? CA generally? How do you rate that importance in hiring?

Is there a general trend to CDCA's docket? (e.g., more copyright than most places, fewer criminal/constitutional cases than EDCA, less patent than NDCA?)

Thanks x 10 for posting.

johndhi wrote:You suggest applying right now? Before 2L Spring grades? It was recommended to me to wait until at least then. top ~3% low t14 here/

The thing is, different judges do things differently. Which makes the whole process extremely frustrating, in my opinion. It is definitely true that some judges are taking applications from 2Ls right now, and they're making hiring decisions right now. Most judges are not at that stage yet, and, as you say, many prefer that 2Ls wait til their 2L grades are in before applying.

To maximize your chances of getting a clerkship, though, it behooves you to try to figure out which judges are accepting clerkships now, and send them applications now. I don't know how your school does it, but at mine there was some information floating around on who the early judges were. You can also call chambers of judges you are particularly interested in and just ask. I'd also recommend making an OSCAR profile that says you are a 3L or law school graduate so you can see information on judges' OSCAR profiles re: whether they're accepting applications or follow the plan, etc. Do everything you can to figure out what judges are moving when, and get your applications in early. It's a huge pain in the ass, but it's your best shot for getting a clerkship.

As for geographic ties, I had none to CA. My impression is that they would've been very helpful, but I had enough other factors going for me that the judge liked me enough to give me an offer anyway.

As for docket, I think this varies some from judge to judge. One thing to keep in mind is that C.D. Cal. is one of the districts participating in the Patent Pilot Program. What this means is that if a patent case is assigned to a judge who is not particularly comfortable with it, it will be reassigned to judgeswho have signed up to take them. So if you get one of these judges, you will be seeing proportionately more patent cases than you would otherwise. Other than that, the biggest thing I took away from my interview with my judge is that the C.D. Cal. is the busiest district in the United States in terms of sheer case volume, and on a per judge basis, and that means that clerks will probably be working harder on average there than in most other districts.

The OP can probably answer this question better than me though.

johndhi wrote:You suggest applying right now? Before 2L Spring grades? It was recommended to me to wait until at least then. top ~3% low t14 here/

Send out all your applications now. It's not worth the time or effort to figure out who's actually taking applications now. Send update letters after your spring grades come out. Then, if necessary, reapply on plan. Worst case scenario - it makes 1 or 2 judges so mad that they won't hire you (though you probably wouldn't want to work for someone like that) and if other judges, for some reason, through the applications away, you reapply on plan.

I understand the "apply now" push for CoA applicants, but is your sense that District Court judges are also hiring this early? I was under the impression that even the "early" D.Ct. judges wait until four semesters of grades (although obviously it differs for every judge...).

Tangerine Gleam wrote:I understand the "apply now" push for CoA applicants, but is your sense that District Court judges are also hiring this early? I was under the impression that even the "early" D.Ct. judges wait until four semesters of grades (although obviously it differs for every judge...).

Most district court judges are not yet looking at applications. Some, however, are.

Anonymous User wrote:

Tangerine Gleam wrote:I understand the "apply now" push for CoA applicants, but is your sense that District Court judges are also hiring this early? I was under the impression that even the "early" D.Ct. judges wait until four semesters of grades (although obviously it differs for every judge...).

Most district court judges are not yet looking at applications. Some, however, are.

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