District Court or CoA Externship Forum

[KD35]

First off, I know this is presumptive that I will be able to get either, but wanted some feedback.

I'm not doing a judicial externship this summer, so I am looking to do a judicial externship this upcoming fall so that I can have it on my resume come OCI/mass mailing firms in August. Assuming I could get either, what would be better to do:
Extern for district court judge and be able to take a class or two in order to lighten the load in subsequent semesters OR
Extern for a circuit court judge and be unable to take extra classes because I would be working full-time.

[transferror]

For OCI/mass mail - I don't think D Ct. will help that much on a resume. COA might give you a slight bump, but probably negligible. All that will matter is grades and interview skills. The opportunity could be incredibly useful for clerkships, in which case I would try and work in the court that gives me the most face-time with the judge. Since COA would be full time, I imagine you'd be able to build a better relationship with the judge.

[Jchance]

First off, I know this is presumptive that I will be able to get either, but wanted some feedback.

I'm not doing a judicial externship this summer, so I am looking to do a judicial externship this upcoming fall so that I can have it on my resume come OCI/mass mailing firms in August. Assuming I could get either, what would be better to do:
Extern for district court judge and be able to take a class or two in order to lighten the load in subsequent semesters OR
Extern for a circuit court judge and be unable to take extra classes because I would be working full-time.

Why not gun for both-split summer? I know a few ppl who did this, each for 6 weeks

[NotMyRealName09]

Generally, COA extern > Dist Ct extern.

The reason is exclusivity. I can only speak from experience, but in law school my fed dist ct externship was not, as far as I could tell, merit based really, but more based on "did they apply."

My sixth cir ct app externship was grade dependent, my extern peers were all top o the class, and, you know, it's a federal appeals court.

But I disagree with the above who says dist ct externship won't help for OCI. If you do that shit where your OCI firms actually practice, they'll love it if they litigate because they see that judge all the time. So dist ct externship may give you a war story to tell in an interview, but the COA externship will be prestigious in its own right even if all you'll really do is legal research and maybe write a proposed opinion analyzing a case.

[A. Nony Mouse]

First off, I know this is presumptive that I will be able to get either, but wanted some feedback.

I'm not doing a judicial externship this summer, so I am looking to do a judicial externship this upcoming fall so that I can have it on my resume come OCI/mass mailing firms in August. Assuming I could get either, what would be better to do:
Extern for district court judge and be able to take a class or two in order to lighten the load in subsequent semesters OR
Extern for a circuit court judge and be unable to take extra classes because I would be working full-time.

If you'd prefer the COA then do that, but I'm not really sure that externing full-time provides any more significant benefits than externing part-time. I guess I just don't know of a lot of schools that allow someone to spend their whole semester externing?

[KD35]

Does it change the answer if I haven't thrown out the idea of doing an Art. III clerkship after law school?

[A. Nony Mouse]

Does it change the answer if I haven't thrown out the idea of doing an Art. III clerkship after law school?

Only if you know one of the judges has a history of hiring interns/really going to bat to get them clerkships. Otherwise I'm not sure doing an internship makes much difference.

[NotMyRealName09]

Let me add this. The dist ct externship will have you watching day to day activities of a trial court. You will learn about actual practice of law, how things go down, see good / bad / terrible lawyers, criminals getting sentenced, etc., and maybe get a cool story or two about an interesting case you obeserved.

The COA externship may expose you to some good, substantive legal work, but it will be similar to law school in a lot of respects - you'll have a factual record, you have some cases cited by the parties, you'll read their breifs, you'll read those cases, maybe do some independant legal research, and maybe write a memo analyzing the case and proposing an outcome. Cool stuff too, but all behind a desk. Dist ct gets you into the shit and exposes you to things you'll never come across in law school itself.

[KD35]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback! Really appreciate it