Transfer student wanting to clerk Forum

[Anonymous User]

So if I get on fedsoc board, LR, and do well its worth it to transfer to a MVP?

If you get on Fed Soc board and get good grades during 2L (which isn’t that hard to do) you will have a good chance of getting a COA clerkship if you apply off plan during 3L. I am telling you that LR is not relevant for most conservative judges. My judge didn’t even have it in the initial filtering criteria that the clerks did. Several of my friends who clerked for conservative COA judges have told me the same thing. The selection process is a joke at most of the top schools.

What about a journal? Should I do any journal or no journal at all?

It won’t hurt you but it’s far from necessary. I think there are three groups of judge opinion on Journal membership. One group doesn’t care at all about any journal membership. These judges don’t think journals provide any real value to the bench or the bar and instead think that journals exist purely for law professors to pretend like they do real “scholarship.” This group truly doesn’t give a shit about any journal membership. Another group knows the law review selection process is not merit based at most of the top schools anymore so they don’t care about law review membership but they still like to see a journal. The vast majority of conservatives fit into the above two categories. The last group is the group that still wants to see law review membership. I’d say like 1/2 the liberal judges might be in this last group still. Obviously these are just raw guesses but I think they are pretty representative.

The only exception is that if you are the EIC of law review or a secondary journal mostly all judges will give that a big bump.

[Anonymous User]

I think people are missing the forest for the trees a little. Yeah maybe MVP (exception being V) is not a good idea to transfer just for clerking, but I think you should transfer to one of those just so you can graduate from a T14.

[Anonymous User]

So if I get on fedsoc board, LR, and do well its worth it to transfer to a MVP?

If you get on Fed Soc board and get good grades during 2L (which isn’t that hard to do) you will have a good chance of getting a COA clerkship if you apply off plan during 3L. I am telling you that LR is not relevant for most conservative judges. My judge didn’t even have it in the initial filtering criteria that the clerks did. Several of my friends who clerked for conservative COA judges have told me the same thing. The selection process is a joke at most of the top schools.

What about a journal? Should I do any journal or no journal at all?

It won’t hurt you but it’s far from necessary. I think there are three groups of judge opinion on Journal membership. One group doesn’t care at all about any journal membership. These judges don’t think journals provide any real value to the bench or the bar and instead think that journals exist purely for law professors to pretend like they do real “scholarship.” This group truly doesn’t give a shit about any journal membership. Another group knows the law review selection process is not merit based at most of the top schools anymore so they don’t care about law review membership but they still like to see a journal. The vast majority of conservatives fit into the above two categories. The last group is the group that still wants to see law review membership. I’d say like 1/2 the liberal judges might be in this last group still. Obviously these are just raw guesses but I think they are pretty representative.

The only exception is that if you are the EIC of law review or a secondary journal mostly all judges will give that a big bump.

Agreed in general but the judges that do still care about LR tend to be the ones that are more selective (although that's not true for some very selective conservative judges).

Disagree that EIC of secondary results in a big bump. Maybe if the secondary is Yale Admin or Harvard Legislation, or it's Alaska Law Review at Duke and you're applying to Judge Gleason in Alaska or something, but most judges seem to know that EIC of a secondary usually means doing very little, low quality work.

[Anonymous User]

So if I get on fedsoc board, LR, and do well its worth it to transfer to a MVP?

If you get on Fed Soc board and get good grades during 2L (which isn’t that hard to do) you will have a good chance of getting a COA clerkship if you apply off plan during 3L. I am telling you that LR is not relevant for most conservative judges. My judge didn’t even have it in the initial filtering criteria that the clerks did. Several of my friends who clerked for conservative COA judges have told me the same thing. The selection process is a joke at most of the top schools.

What about a journal? Should I do any journal or no journal at all?

It won’t hurt you but it’s far from necessary. I think there are three groups of judge opinion on Journal membership. One group doesn’t care at all about any journal membership. These judges don’t think journals provide any real value to the bench or the bar and instead think that journals exist purely for law professors to pretend like they do real “scholarship.” This group truly doesn’t give a shit about any journal membership. Another group knows the law review selection process is not merit based at most of the top schools anymore so they don’t care about law review membership but they still like to see a journal. The vast majority of conservatives fit into the above two categories. The last group is the group that still wants to see law review membership. I’d say like 1/2 the liberal judges might be in this last group still. Obviously these are just raw guesses but I think they are pretty representative.

The only exception is that if you are the EIC of law review or a secondary journal mostly all judges will give that a big bump.

Agreed in general but the judges that do still care about LR tend to be the ones that are more selective (although that's not true for some very selective conservative judges).

Disagree that EIC of secondary results in a big bump. Maybe if the secondary is Yale Admin or Harvard Legislation, or it's Alaska Law Review at Duke and you're applying to Judge Gleason in Alaska or something, but most judges seem to know that EIC of a secondary usually means doing very little, low quality work.

JOL at Harvard is indistinguishable from any of the other secondary journals. Only one that has independent appeal is JLPP and that is obviously for other reasons

[Anonymous User]

I think people are missing the forest for the trees a little. Yeah maybe MVP (exception being V) is not a good idea to transfer just for clerking, but I think you should transfer to one of those just so you can graduate from a T14.

Wondering What would be another reason? I already have a SA at a biglaw firm

[Anonymous User]

So if I get on fedsoc board, LR, and do well its worth it to transfer to a MVP?

If you get on Fed Soc board and get good grades during 2L (which isn’t that hard to do) you will have a good chance of getting a COA clerkship if you apply off plan during 3L. I am telling you that LR is not relevant for most conservative judges. My judge didn’t even have it in the initial filtering criteria that the clerks did. Several of my friends who clerked for conservative COA judges have told me the same thing. The selection process is a joke at most of the top schools.

What about a journal? Should I do any journal or no journal at all?

It won’t hurt you but it’s far from necessary. I think there are three groups of judge opinion on Journal membership. One group doesn’t care at all about any journal membership. These judges don’t think journals provide any real value to the bench or the bar and instead think that journals exist purely for law professors to pretend like they do real “scholarship.” This group truly doesn’t give a shit about any journal membership. Another group knows the law review selection process is not merit based at most of the top schools anymore so they don’t care about law review membership but they still like to see a journal. The vast majority of conservatives fit into the above two categories. The last group is the group that still wants to see law review membership. I’d say like 1/2 the liberal judges might be in this last group still. Obviously these are just raw guesses but I think they are pretty representative.

The only exception is that if you are the EIC of law review or a secondary journal mostly all judges will give that a big bump.

Agreed in general but the judges that do still care about LR tend to be the ones that are more selective (although that's not true for some very selective conservative judges).

Disagree that EIC of secondary results in a big bump. Maybe if the secondary is Yale Admin or Harvard Legislation, or it's Alaska Law Review at Duke and you're applying to Judge Gleason in Alaska or something, but most judges seem to know that EIC of a secondary usually means doing very little, low quality work.

Thank you both for sharing. I did write on but am not hopeful… hopefully like both of you said it wont hurt me too much for clerking. (Fedsoc judge at least)