probono federal district court v. state appellate clerkship Forum

[Anonymous User]

If faced with this decision I would ask the district judge's chambers what exactly the clerkship entailed. Would you get assigned a similar chunk of the docket to the other clerks? What would the judge expect you to put on your resume, and what would your actual role in chambers be?

D. ct. clerk here. I fully agree with this. I can't imagine any judge/clerks would be miffed by this in any way. And even if it's a regular clerkship, it's a good idea to ask these questions. Some judges split up their docket very distinctly and your interests/abilities may align well.

E.g., my judge handles all his criminal cases. We do almost no work on them and 95% of our work is on civil cases. So if you were to interview with and emphasized wanting to do criminal work, but not civil work, you'd be an autoding, regardless of resume.

[Anonymous User]

Can someone who took one of these pro bono gigs post about his/her experiences/anecdotal, including job search afterward?

[Anonymous User]

So you're considering whether to go to COSA or D.Md im guessing?

How did you know this?

Thank you everyone for the helpful responses.

Because Im in the state at the COA--honestly COSA clerks probably do more writing since there is an automatic appeal, whereas we have discretion to grant/deny cert petitions. Unfortunately, I can't speak as to post-COSA job prospects, i simply just don't have info. But, looking at some of the judges' info, they generally seem to have worked in firms more recently than the COA judges so they might have stronger ties.

As for the pro bono law clerk I knew at D.Md., Im not sure what they listed on their resume, but on the court's website they are listed as an "administrative assistant" which I find to be kind of terrible.

Current COSA clerk. I agree that you are likely going to do more writing because of the higher volume of cases that come through COSA. If you want to work on writing, it might be the best bet for you. You will not have much interaction with attorneys, though, if you are looking to actively network like you could with a trial court clerkship.

As to job prospects, I think it really depends on the judge. Most of the clerks that I know on the court do not have jobs lined up for after their clerkships yet, but they are actively interviewing (and many firms will give a courtesy interview because of clerking on COSA). I would look into how well each judge is connected to the practice area you are interested in, and I would also consider how well the judge's prior clerks have done with placement post-clerkship. I would also try to find out how well the pro bono clerks have done after their stint there.