Wilkinson profs? Forum

[SamuelDanforth]

I understand Wilkinson is a feeder, but man, his clerkship doesn't sound like a lot of fun. And I don't mean that he's a bad guy. From everything I've heard, he's a good boss. His clerks just have such a limited role in the process compared to other clerkships.

Don't know where you are getting this from. His clerks draft bench memos and opinions just like 99% of other COA clerks?

Directly from a former clerk. Person said each clerk got to draft one opinion. That was it. I want to make clear that this person wasn't complaining about the clerkship. He/she spoke very highly of Wilkinson. Just shocked me to hear that (and how they did bench memos was quite different than the way it was done in other chambers, like the one I worked in).

I don't know about the percentage of opinions vs. memorandum dispositions on the 4th Circuit, but on the 9th Circuit, I don't think it would be terribly unusual for a clerk to draft only one opinion in a year. Most will draft 2-3 I would think. Some judges write more opinions, but many judges won't have more than 1 or 2 a sitting. So only drafting 1 opinion a year doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me if the clerkship is otherwise good.

[Anonymous User]

Goldsmith at HLS is TCR. Also Dean Manning to a lesser extent.

At YLS, Eskridge and Chuabenfeld (though who knows if that's still true). Probably some others.

At SLS, used to be Liz Magill, though she left. Michael McConnell, of course.

He is particularly likely to care about the opinions of former clerks, and there are a lot of them (e.g., at UC Davis, Aaron Tang might have an outside shot at pushing somebody; at WUSTL, Dan Epps has sent one student to him, etc.). But, really, there's generally not much a student will be able to do. Part of why he would trust a specific professor is that the professor sends him the very top students, which you either are or are not after 1L or earlier.

I'm pretty puzzled by the "draft one opinion" stuff. Who ... else would be drafting them? He dictates a fair amount and edits them, but a clerk is still going to be doing the initial draft for each opinion. I would think one per sitting would be more common (with some clerks getting more than one). Bench memos are different, since he doesn't want any analysis, just description.

[Anonymous User]

I understand Wilkinson is a feeder, but man, his clerkship doesn't sound like a lot of fun. And I don't mean that he's a bad guy. From everything I've heard, he's a good boss. His clerks just have such a limited role in the process compared to other clerkships.

Don't know where you are getting this from. His clerks draft bench memos and opinions just like 99% of other COA clerks?

Directly from a former clerk. Person said each clerk got to draft one opinion. That was it. I want to make clear that this person wasn't complaining about the clerkship. He/she spoke very highly of Wilkinson. Just shocked me to hear that (and how they did bench memos was quite different than the way it was done in other chambers, like the one I worked in).

I don't know about the percentage of opinions vs. memorandum dispositions on the 4th Circuit, but on the 9th Circuit, I don't think it would be terribly unusual for a clerk to draft only one opinion in a year. Most will draft 2-3 I would think. Some judges write more opinions, but many judges won't have more than 1 or 2 a sitting. So only drafting 1 opinion a year doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me if the clerkship is otherwise good.

This may warrant a separate thread, but I personally can't imagine drafting only 1 opinion (or even 3). The published/unpublished ratio certainly varies a lot by Circuit, and I do think the 4th (and to some extent the 9th) issue more unpublished decisions. Also some circuits hand off more work on unpublished decisions to staff attorneys. FWIW, I clerked on the 10th Circuit and my co-clerks and I all drafted far more than 3 opinions.

[lavarman84]

I understand Wilkinson is a feeder, but man, his clerkship doesn't sound like a lot of fun. And I don't mean that he's a bad guy. From everything I've heard, he's a good boss. His clerks just have such a limited role in the process compared to other clerkships.

Don't know where you are getting this from. His clerks draft bench memos and opinions just like 99% of other COA clerks?

Directly from a former clerk. Person said each clerk got to draft one opinion. That was it. I want to make clear that this person wasn't complaining about the clerkship. He/she spoke very highly of Wilkinson. Just shocked me to hear that (and how they did bench memos was quite different than the way it was done in other chambers, like the one I worked in).

I don't know about the percentage of opinions vs. memorandum dispositions on the 4th Circuit, but on the 9th Circuit, I don't think it would be terribly unusual for a clerk to draft only one opinion in a year. Most will draft 2-3 I would think. Some judges write more opinions, but many judges won't have more than 1 or 2 a sitting. So only drafting 1 opinion a year doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me if the clerkship is otherwise good.

When I say "opinion," I don't mean "published decision." That's true that you may only get one or two published (F.4d) opinions per year. But in a typical clerkship, you'd draft quite a few unpublished decisions or memo dispos (if you're on the 9th). What I'm saying is that Judge Wilkinson handles almost all himself, but he will allow each clerk to draft from scratch the opinion for one case in that year.

[lavarman84]

I'm pretty puzzled by the "draft one opinion" stuff. Who ... else would be drafting them? He dictates a fair amount and edits them, but a clerk is still going to be doing the initial draft for each opinion. I would think one per sitting would be more common (with some clerks getting more than one). Bench memos are different, since he doesn't want any analysis, just description.

From the way the clerk described it to me, Judge Wilkinson does the opinion writing himself (well, maybe not in a literal sense), except each clerk gets one case per term where they get to draft it from scratch. It's possible I misunderstood him/her, but I don't think I did. And that's what I was referring to with my bench memo comment. That really surprised me. My judge was quite different. We were expected to analyze and make a recommendation.

EDIT: When I say "literal sense," I mean he may not literally write it up himself. He could dictate it and have somebody else write it. But that's quite different from what my experience was. My judge would tell us what the outcome was and an explanation of why. Then, we'd be trusted to draft everything from scratch to get to that outcome using the why. He/she would edit it, but the structure, organization, choice of cases, etc. were largely on the clerks.

[Anonymous User]

The caliber of candidates described in this thread is kind of surprising to me. For another data point for OP, I will say that I know someone who was hired as a Wilkinson clerk from a lower T14 and they had very mediocre grades and were not Fed Soc president or anything.

[LBJ's Hair]

The caliber of candidates described in this thread is kind of surprising to me.

are you thinking of a different judge Wilkinson. b/c the judge Wilkinson we're talking about has sent like, 50+ clerks to SCOTUS. if he hired someone w/shit grades from a lower T14 it's not b/c he couldn't get anyone better, it's b/c that kid was a senator's daughter or something

[Anonymous User]

The caliber of candidates described in this thread is kind of surprising to me.

are you thinking of a different judge Wilkinson. b/c the judge Wilkinson we're talking about has sent like, 50+ clerks to SCOTUS. if he hired someone w/shit grades from a lower T14 it's not b/c he couldn't get anyone better, it's b/c that kid was a senator's daughter or something

This. Perhaps the quoted anon is thinking of Judge Wilkins?

[Anonymous User]

No, I’m talking about Wilkinson on the Fourth Circuit as well. It was very surprising to me too.

[Anonymous User]

Same quoted anon, wanted to correct myself - the person was president of Fed Soc but what I said about the grades was correct. AFAIK they don’t have a famous dad in government but it’s always possible, I suppose

[Anonymous User]

Okay, well, that person was definitely an outlier for some reason. Maybe a personal connection, or they used their fed soc network to really impress someone Wilkinson trusts or something. But OP, I definitely would take that data point as an outlier that almost certainly had unknown factors contributing.

[Anonymous User]

Same quoted anon, wanted to correct myself - the person was president of Fed Soc but what I said about the grades was correct. AFAIK they don’t have a famous dad in government but it’s always possible, I suppose

FedSoc president doesn't help much. Either you're mistaken about this clerk's grades or they enjoy significant political connections (to the point of being a virtual shoo-in for a SCOTUS clerkship). Wilkinson would never otherwise consider a candidate matching this profile.

[Joachim2017]

The data, and clerk profile, of Wilkinson clerks is so well-known and so well-documented at this point that I have a hard time believing this so-called outlier had grades as mediocre as you seem to think. Unless you heard from the person him/herself, or somehow saw the transcript, I think it's an exaggeration at best. Not saying you are for some reason not being truthful, just it's more likely there's a discrepancy in the communication chain.

[Anonymous User]

Not OP, but it's possible they did very well for the first semester or two and then tanked. I don't know any Wilkinson clerks who fit that profile, but know others who got comparable clerkships very early and then fizzled after 1L.

[Anonymous User]

I understand the skepticism. I will say that I saw the transcript so I know for a fact. Also, it wasn’t a case of fizzling out because this person secured the clerkship very early on in law school and I saw the grades at that time

[Anonymous User]

Wilkinson has one WashU grad. Probably top of the class, and was an RA for Dan Epps, who clerked for Wilkinson then Kennedy.

[Anonymous User]

Reupping to see if anyone has any deeper knowledge on who all the YLS profs that are closest to Wilkinson are. Thank you!!