senior judge - only does civil docket Forum

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Wed May 02, 2012 9:06 pm

i have the opportunity to clerk for a senior district judge - but he only does civil cases. i'd like to be a criminal defense attorney. will this still be a good experience for me, worth the time? not sure any other clerkship opportunities will come my way. do you think other judges in the district will let me work on one or two criminal cases or is that frowned upon?

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Wed May 02, 2012 9:49 pm

Waste of time

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Wed May 02, 2012 9:53 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Waste of time

can you be a little more specific? why do you think that? what does a clerk do for civil versus criminal? thank you!

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu May 03, 2012 12:16 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Waste of time
can you be a little more specific? why do you think that? what does a clerk do for civil versus criminal? thank you!

would you play baseball if your goal was to become a soccer player?

Detrox · Post by **Detrox** » Thu May 03, 2012 12:32 am

These replies are wonderful uses of the anonymous function to give unsupported and unconvincing advice.

Teoeo · Post by **Teoeo** » Thu May 03, 2012 12:52 am

Clerkships are helpful for your career, regardless of what you learn in them.

ToTransferOrNot · Post by **ToTransferOrNot** » Thu May 03, 2012 10:02 am

A few things:

Keep in mind that the civil docket might include habeas (habeas is "officially" civil in nature) and immigration. Look into that--that could give you some exposure to "criminal-type" stuff.

The civil docket also includes Sec. 1983 cases. Many of those cases allege that person x was arrested without probable cause or that a search was improperly conducted. Those issues will be relevant to criminal work.

At the end of the day, litigation is litigation. There are significant differences between criminal and civil litigation, but there is a lot of crossover, too. That's why big firm litigators often do criminal stuff pro bono: it's seen as a training opportunity.

Eco · Post by **Eco** » Thu May 03, 2012 10:08 am

Don't listen to these dumb fucks. Yes, it's useful. Go for it.

NotMyRealName09 · Post by **NotMyRealName09** » Thu May 03, 2012 11:43 am

Yes, go for it. ALthough its civil, in the end you are training to interpret court rules and conduct legal research in areas you are unfamiliar with. Those skills easily translate into the criminal arena - you'll just be researching criminal rules and statutes instead, but the foundation is the same for both.

00TREX00 · Post by **00TREX00** » Thu May 03, 2012 1:13 pm

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu May 03, 2012 9:06 pm

Thanks for your thoughts! I guess I will take the job and not be disappointed that I am not interacting with AUSAs every day.

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