Feeder Clerkship as a Transfer--Any success stories? Forum

[Citizen Genet]

All of this about 15-20 on down is mainly useful for this: If you're a super shining star at Vanderbilt or UCLA or UT, you have a great chance at getting into a really sought after clerkship (one of the D.C. Circuit judges routinely interviews from Vandy if I remember right and hires from there not infrequently; the rising stars on the 9th are hiring from UCLA; UT has a definite in with the big name 5th Circuit judges). For WUSTL and Minnesota, there isn't really that pipeline to big names. It's not to say it's impossible, it's just much less likely. If you're at WUSTL, you're mainly looking to get into the 8th, 7th, or 6th circuit as a matter of geography. And the feeders in those circuits don't really have connections with WUSTL.

So if you're at WUSTL or Minnesota and you're really gunning it to get into the most preftigiouf clerkship possible, then you should consider transferring up to to a T6. (Chicago seems like it would be a great option for someone looking to stay in the midwest and wanting to land a big name on the 7th or 6th.) If you're content with getting COA clerkship period and you're top 5%, might be worth sticking around and holding on to the guaranteed grades and connections. If you're at the other T15-T20 schools, you can probably focus on rocking it out where you are and working the angles from there.

[Anonymous User]

If you're at Texas, you could apply to Gorsuch. He's hired from Texas before. Probably #1 in the class if had to guess.

[Anonymous User]

If you're at Texas, you could apply to Gorsuch. He's hired from Texas before. Probably #1 in the class if had to guess.

The person going in 2014 is a chancellor at large, so isn't # 1. So it's definitely possible to get strong feeder/semi-feeder judges without being #1. General rule of thumb for 2Ls at UT is 4.0+ (probably around 5-7 people have that) for a shot at a good circuit judge. 3.9+ for a shot at non-feeder circuit judges (about 15 people have that).


Edit: point I was trying to make was that UT does pretty well. Don't have to be the very best to have great options.

[TatteredDignity]

Haven't heard anything specific about WUSTL (leading me to believe it doesn't do great)

Correct. We had one SCOTUS clerk back in the 60s, and I'm fairly certain that no one in recent history has even clerked for a feeder. Or a semi-feeder. We just haven't been a good school long enough to have the institutional gravitas. It's hard to develop pipelines when you don't already have them.

I'd almost go so far as to say don't come here if clerking is really important to you. We place about 4 kids in COA clerkships per year, and maybe 4 more in D.Ct. It's ugly.

/rant from applicant currently in the throes of the process

if you're in top 10% or so and want to talk about it, post non-anon and i can pm you. it's REALLY hard to get anything outside of that though, iirc

Thanks, I'd appreciate any advice you may have.

[Anonymous User]

T30 -> HYS transfer here. Getting feeders is still going to be very difficult. You will need to still be in the very top of the class at your new school (probably all Hs and maybe some book awards). I've gotten a few bites on other A3 clerkships, but it's still really difficult. It's kinda random from what I can tell.