Top Law Schools

Deciding between a judicial internship in the district court for DC or circuit court for non-DC.

Which would be a "better opportunity?"

I did DDC and it was a fantastic opportunity. There is the summer speaker series where you get to have lunch with some of the most significant people/lawyers in DC.

During my summer, we had multiple former U.S. Attorney Generals, multiple former Solicitor Generals, etc that come to eat lunch and talk to interns/clerks about their careers.

Just that was worth the price of admission.

As an aside, make sure you find out from others about the Judge on the D.D.C. Some treat interns really well, while others treat them not so well, dont even know who they are, and never let them go see hearings/go to the lunch talks. It makes a significant difference who you work for there as a summer intern because of that.

Edit: it also makes a difference for where you want to work. Almost every summer intern I know from my summer at the D.D.C. wanted to stay in DC (and did). But I wouldn't go to the DDC if the COA is in the area you want to work.

Also, this is really judge dependent. There are judges on the DDC I would never want to intern for, but some COA judges are also like that. Also take into account you likely won't be doing anything at a COA during the summer, while at a district court there is at least usually something interesting happening at any given time.

4.0

what's a circuit court for non-DC? like federal 9th or 2nd circuit?

it's more than likely that none of your screeners will care

runinthefront wrote:it's more than likely that none of your screeners will care

I do callbacks at a NYC V20 in lit and would not care and probably would not even notice. Go wherever you think you will have the better experience.

The expectations for 1L summer are really low.