1L Clerkship Questions Forum

[crit_racer]

1L here looking to do a 1L judicial clerkship w/ a state appellate or federal district judge. The kicker is that I would like to do this clerkship w/ a judge outside of my home/school market. I go to UT and am from Texas, but I really want to do the clerkship out on the West coast (either in Seattle, Portland, SF, or LA)

I have no ties to any of these markets except LA. Does that matter for these clerkships? My hope was to try and get a clerkship in one of these markets and take advantage of the time I'm there to do some networking with local attys, etc b/c these are the places I would ideally like to work. Wondering how hard it would be to get a clerkship in any of these markets and any thoughts that y'all might have generally. Thanks in advance!

[patrickd139]

1L here looking to do a 1L judicial clerkship w/ a state appellate or federal district judge. The kicker is that I would like to do this clerkship w/ a judge outside of my home/school market. I go to UT and am from Texas, but I really want to do the clerkship out on the West coast (either in Seattle, Portland, SF, or LA)

I have no ties to any of these markets except LA. Does that matter for these clerkships? My hope was to try and get a clerkship in one of these markets and take advantage of the time I'm there to do some networking with local attys, etc b/c these are the places I would ideally like to work. Wondering how hard it would be to get a clerkship in any of these markets and any thoughts that y'all might have generally. Thanks in advance!

1) I don't think "clerkship" means what you think it means. If you're talking about working for a judge for free for a summer, that's a judicial 'internship' (or 'externship,' depending on what school you attend). A 'clerkship' is full-time paid employment as judicial assistant to the judge, usually over the course of a year- or two-long term.

2) Talk to career services, although I think you might be doing yourself a disservice be taking this route with no ties to the area.

[ilovesf]

Crit, not sure if you've seen/posted in this thread, but there have been tons of judicial externship questions here with a lot of helpful answers
http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=168016

[crit_racer]

Yeah I meant judicial externship. Clerkship is just what rolls off my tongue first when I think of working for a judge.

I was planning on splitting the summer and working for a PI group back here in TX for the second half. I see your concerns about shooting myself in the foot, but I figure that if I'm going to try and make it out to the West coast, this would be a good time to do that, no?

I'm also going to apply to Austin judges. Do you know anything about the TX Court of Criminal Appeals? Seems like it could be interesting, especially since I'm leaning the direction of a PI career. Assuming you go to UT b/c of the avatar...are the courts in Austin very competitive to get?

[Norwood]

i'd highly recommend writing a letter the judge's clerks to inquire about a position. Clerks do all the interviewing, hiring, supervising and mentoring of the externs. they'll probably appreciate you being proactive. Also, there were people from across the country where i externed