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Looking to do a clerkship asap, but my school is very vague about when alums should apply. I know the plan doesn't apply, but how early is too early if I wanted a fall 2014 clerkship.

Thanks!

For clerkships starting the fall of 2014, I would suggest applying in January or so. Off-plan judges start interviewing 2Ls as early as April/May in some places, and you want to be well ahead of them. I externed for a COA judge that hired off-plan, and he had applications for the 2013 cycle coming in as early as February 2012.

Thanks, zomg.

A logistical question:

How do you deal with recommenders when you're applying on a piecemeal basis?

If I plan to apply immediately to any judge that pops up with an opening, do I just need to annoy my recommender each time? Or is there an easier way?

Also, last Q for now: where can I find out which judges are off plan?

Anonymous User wrote:Thanks, zomg.

A logistical question:

How do you deal with recommenders when you're applying on a piecemeal basis?

If I plan to apply immediately to any judge that pops up with an opening, do I just need to annoy my recommender each time? Or is there an easier way?

Also, last Q for now: where can I find out which judges are off plan?

At least at my school, profs gave the letter to their faculty assistant (as a word file or whatever), and so you just had to tell the faculty assistant each time you were sending an application, and they'd send the LOR (customized to each judge - you had to give the assistant a word file with the judge's names/addresses so they could do a mail merge). So you had to bug the faculty assistant each time, but not the recommender. At least, that's how it worked for paper apps - if you're applying electronically, it depends on how your school/recommender has OSCAR set up. I think you have to request the letter through OSCAR, and the request goes either to the faculty assistant and the prof, or just the assistant. Ask your CSO - they should have a policy in place for dealing with this. But basically, you shouldn't have to bug the recommender directly each time.

(Though I suppose if you're using non-prof recommenders you might have to bug them each time - I would warn them about this and ask them what they want you to do about it.)

As for which judges hire early - there isn't any centralized warehouse of this info, as far as I know. Again, see what your CSO knows; my school's CSO had that info about all the judges in the Circuit where we're located, though not elsewhere. But we mostly place only locally - if your school places more nationally they may have more info.

So should one use OSCAR, or do paper apps? I would be applying broadly, and I don't want to drop $1000 or more on postage.

kalvano wrote:So should one use OSCAR, or do paper apps? I would be applying broadly, and I don't want to drop $1000 or more on postage.

As much as the postage thing sucks, I think paper apps are better - it's a lot easier to ding an OSCAR app without even really looking at it, whereas the paper app is there, right in front of them. I mean, sure, they can always pitch it without even opening it, but I think that's less likely than with OSCAR. That said, the judges who only want OSCAR still only want OSCAR. I sent all my apps as paper apps, and IIRC I think I got responses from a few judges telling me to resubmit through OSCAR. Anyway, I know it's anecdotal, but my current judge usually hires rising 3Ls on-plan through OSCAR, but looked at my (paper) app when I sent it in May, and hired me instead, so I tend to favor paper. I only sent out 20-30 apps, though (would have sent more if I hadn't got anything in that wave of apps) so the postage wasn't too awful. It does suck overall.