How does your judge select clerks? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Type of Court: Federal district court

Particular Preferences: We're in a kind of middle-of-nowhere sort of area, and the judge is from here, so one of the things he looks for is people that are from here and want to come here and practice. That said, none of his clerks has ever actually been from here, at the end of the day. Still, it's something that gets us to pull people out of the stack for the judge's personal review.

Otherwise, the judge doesn't have much of a "profile." His clerks have come from a handful of schools (all in the T20, though where they fell within there varies a bit), and he has repeated somewhat. He seems to like people from his undergrad or law school, though he doesn't limit himself to them.

One thing that is particular to my judge is that he doesn't take on alums. He prefers to take people directly from law school. That doesn't mean he's anti-work experience; he's had a number of clerks who worked between UG and LS. But alums are a no-no.

Review Process: We (the clerks) review applications as they come in. We aren't actively soliciting apps right now, but even now we read the odd few that come in hardcopy. Once we get our OSCAR up and rolling, I'm sure we'll have more of this stuff to do.

Anyway, we review them. Our review looks at everything EXCEPT transcripts. We are actually instructed NOT to look at transcripts. That said, we look at your resume and your recs, so we can generally tell how well you did academically. We just won't know you got a B in CivPro once. We put applications into loose categories of 'no,' 'maybe,' and 'yes.' Once that's done, we take the 'yes' pile to the judge. He'll go through, and he'll pick which ones he wants to interview.

We call those folks up, and ask how soon they can get to the middle of nowhere. It's a fairly pricy interview, since no one actually lives here that's interviewing here (there's no ABA law school nearby). Then there's the interview. It starts with the judge, and then they come over to us. The judge usually seems them for a few more minutes at the end. Sometimes he offers on the spot (that's what happened to me), and sometimes he thinks it over for a couple days (my co-clerk).

And that's our chambers in a nutshell.

I know it's just one data point, but for your middle of nowhere location/pricey interview, how many people does your judge interview for each slot?

About ten people for two slots, this last time around. We'll see what happens when we actively start searching for my and my co-clerk's replacements.

[Anonymous User]

I'm at a D.Ct. in a big coastal city.

(1) Clerks make initial cut, creating a small "yes" pile based on quick review of resume (first), transcript (second), recs (third).

(2) Give yes pile to judge. Judge makes it smaller.

(3) Clerks read writing samples of the small pile. Remove applicants with bad typos, awkward style, etc.

Several otherwise highly-qualified applicants (including one top-of-the-class student) have been dinged solely on the basis of the writing sample. The sample doesn't have to be mind-blowing, but the writing has to be good.

[Anonymous User]

I'm at a D.Ct. in a big coastal city.

(1) Clerks make initial cut, creating a small "yes" pile based on quick review of resume (first), transcript (second), recs (third).

(2) Give yes pile to judge. Judge makes it smaller.

(3) Clerks read writing samples of the small pile. Remove applicants with bad typos, awkward style, etc.

Several otherwise highly-qualified applicants (including one top-of-the-class student) have been dinged solely on the basis of the writing sample. The sample doesn't have to be mind-blowing, but the writing has to be good.

How do you make determinations of transcript quality, esp. at schools that don't rank? I'm at a T10 that doesn't rank and I'm curious if your judge cares about overall grades, 1L grades, or grades in only doctrinal courses.

[bruinfan10]

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[Anonymous User]

I'm at a D.Ct. in a big coastal city.

(1) Clerks make initial cut, creating a small "yes" pile based on quick review of resume (first), transcript (second), recs (third).

(2) Give yes pile to judge. Judge makes it smaller.

(3) Clerks read writing samples of the small pile. Remove applicants with bad typos, awkward style, etc.

Several otherwise highly-qualified applicants (including one top-of-the-class student) have been dinged solely on the basis of the writing sample. The sample doesn't have to be mind-blowing, but the writing has to be good.

How do you make determinations of transcript quality, esp. at schools that don't rank? I'm at a T10 that doesn't rank and I'm curious if your judge cares about overall grades, 1L grades, or grades in only doctrinal courses.

For each of the non-ranking schools, one of us figures out what a rough cutoff should be. I went to one such school (t10 with "alternative" grades and no ranks divulged to students), so I know what to look for on transcripts from my alma matter. If it's a school we're less familiar with, usually a former clerk (or another clerk down the hall) went to that school and can give us some guidance. It's usually not too hard to tell, though.

The judges cares about overall grades, but doctrinal grades might be taken a bit more seriously because doctrinal classes often have a more stringent curve. But LRW awards and the like are also viewed quite favorably.

[thirtyandseven]

Does it stand out at all if a candidate takes the time to upload individual pdf cover letters with a heading and everything, as opposed to using the plaintext cover letter merge functionality on OSCAR?

[Jchance]

Does it stand out at all if a candidate takes the time to upload individual pdf cover letters with a heading and everything, as opposed to using the plaintext cover letter merge functionality on OSCAR?

You can make heading using OSCAR online editing function (center, then increase font size, etc.), no need to pdf each letter

[Anonymous User]

Does it stand out at all if a candidate takes the time to upload individual pdf cover letters with a heading and everything, as opposed to using the plaintext cover letter merge functionality on OSCAR?

Do not care *at all* about this. Cannot imagine something less important about a clerkship app.

[thirtyandseven]

Do not care *at all* about this. Cannot imagine something less important about a clerkship app.

You can make heading using OSCAR online editing function (center, then increase font size, etc.), no need to pdf each letter

Thanks for the replies. For whatever reason, my school's clerkship counselor mentioned that some people do individual pdfs to create headings "because judges might think it's impressive." Leave it to my school to simultaneously tell me to do something useless while also telling me the least efficient way of doing that useless thing. My fault for not at least verifying the merge capabilities before posting.

[Anonymous User]

How does your judge view publications? What is the most you have ever seen on a résumé?

I don't think mine (D. Ct.) cares at all. Most people don't have more than one thing. Two max. Beyond that, unless you have prior academic experience like a Ph.D., I'd think it's a bit odd.

I don't think mine (CA9) cares either. A long list of publications would be weird and offputting, I think.

Curious as to rationale here. Wouldn't multiple publications show good writing, attention to detail, ability to research well? I am not a former academic but throughout UG I published with a few faculty in academic journals. Is including these a bad idea?

[A. Nony Mouse]

I don't think those articles would be a problem. The danger with too many articles on legal topics/in law school is that the judge may think you want to be an academic (and maybe you do), and some judges want to hire people who are going to end up in practice. (There are some judges who like proto-academics, of course, but completely anecdotally, I've seen academic-leaning applicants here report facing trouble for looking too academic.)

[Anonymous User]

I don't think those articles would be a problem. The danger with too many articles on legal topics/in law school is that the judge may think you want to be an academic (and maybe you do), and some judges want to hire people who are going to end up in practice. (There are some judges who like proto-academics, of course, but completely anecdotally, I've seen academic-leaning applicants here report facing trouble for looking too academic.)

Thanks for the reply. I super want to practice (no interest in academia). None of my publications are about law (except one is kind of incidentally related). Is there a way to not come off as a proto-professor?

[A. Nony Mouse]

I really wouldn't worry about it. It's only publishing in law reviews that signals professor wannabe, I think; UG publications are different and fine.

[Anonymous User]

I don't think those articles would be a problem. The danger with too many articles on legal topics/in law school is that the judge may think you want to be an academic (and maybe you do), and some judges want to hire people who are going to end up in practice. (There are some judges who like proto-academics, of course, but completely anecdotally, I've seen academic-leaning applicants here report facing trouble for looking too academic.)

My concern is different. My judge is fine with the academia thing. For me though I'd rather see a range of things in a resume. A list of 10 publications doesn't tell me anything about your writing that I wouldn't get from just listing a couple of the publications you are most proud of.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Except it tells you they've written ten publications... If someone has written that many publications and they are academically inclined, it's kind of a thing to list them all rather than to just select a couple. I mean, I guess I'd either say "10 publications, details available on request," or I'd list them all (possibly in an addendum to the resume rather than in the resume itself), but it would never occur to me only to list a couple.