2014-2015 Clerkship Application Thread - OP Updated 04/19/13 Forum

[Anonymous User]

Updates? Who is moving?

According to the 4th circuit thread, Diaz (4th) is full.

Owen (5th) is full as well.

[Anonymous User]

Confirm Diaz is full. Sort of terse rejection letter.

[Anonymous User]

Confirm Diaz is full. Sort of terse rejection letter.

Better than the dozens that just don't respond.

[Anonymous User]

Confirm Diaz is full. Sort of terse rejection letter.

Better than the dozens that just don't respond.

Amen.

[ndirish2010]

Kleinfeld asks for LSAT scores? That's pretty rare. I have maybe heard of one other judge doing that, but I don't remember who.

I have no idea what he's looking for, but I hope it's something that he wouldn't weigh heavily.

Graber asks for it too.

I'd personally guess it's the reason anon above posted--for lower ranked schools they might just be looking to see whether you could have attended a better school but didn't for whatever reasons.

I've heard Gruender asks for HS GPA. Not kidding.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Good god. I don't think I knew my GPA when I was IN high school. Now you'd need Indiana Jones and a team of crack archaeologists to uncover it.

[Anonymous User]

Checking in.

School range: Vanderbilt-Texas-UCLA
Rank: Top 40%-ish
LR?: Secondary journal
Published?: Sort of.
Recs: Strong, no big names.
2L/3L/Alum?: 2L
Where applying?: Flyover district courts, magistrates, flyover state supreme courts
Any other factors: I've been praying to a god of each religion...just in case.

...how fucked am I?

[Anonymous User]

This article gives an impressive example of what it takes to land a COA clerkship these days.
http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/PubA ... 0411063239

[lolwat]

This article gives an impressive example of what it takes to land a COA clerkship these days.
http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/PubA ... 0411063239

I dunno, man. This guy is totally unique, which is something that I found out judges tend to look for. Something different, but not in a bad way. You get hundreds or thousands of resumes, probably half or more that have somewhat similar qualifications, you get hundreds of calls from profs because everyone does that now, you look for things that stand out. This guy is a perfect example of someone that's going to stand out.

[Anonymous User]

Anything new today? Interview requests?

[BlueDiamond]

if you finalize an app on oscar, and then see that the position gets filled, can you withdraw that app and add another.. essentially getting rid of the 100 app limit? Or, once you finalize one will you have 99 left no matter what?

[Flips88]

if you finalize an app on oscar, and then see that the position gets filled, can you withdraw that app and add another.. essentially getting rid of the 100 app limit? Or, once you finalize one will you have 99 left no matter what?

My basic understanding is that you can only have 100 live apps at one point so if you have 100 finalized and submitted and a position gets filled, you can withdraw it and then that frees up you to submit an app for another judge you have not applied to yet.

[Detrox]

if you finalize an app on oscar, and then see that the position gets filled, can you withdraw that app and add another.. essentially getting rid of the 100 app limit? Or, once you finalize one will you have 99 left no matter what?

My basic understanding is that you can only have 100 live apps at one point so if you have 100 finalized and submitted and a position gets filled, you can withdraw it and then that frees up you to submit an app for another judge you have not applied to yet.

If a position gets marked as "filled" on Oscar, and you have applied to it, it will no longer be counted towards your limit. If you know the position has been filled but the judge/clerks haven't updated Oscar, you can withdraw your application and it likewise will be removed from your limit, but note that you cannot reapply to that same position so make sure your info is good. Finally if a position on Oscar "expires," meaning it was posted a long time ago and hasn't been maintained by the judge/clerks, any application to that position WILL COUNT towards your limit still for at least 30 days after the expiration, so those are likely the positions from which you should withdraw asap if you find yourself with 100 outstanding apps.

[BlueDiamond]

if you finalize an app on oscar, and then see that the position gets filled, can you withdraw that app and add another.. essentially getting rid of the 100 app limit? Or, once you finalize one will you have 99 left no matter what?

My basic understanding is that you can only have 100 live apps at one point so if you have 100 finalized and submitted and a position gets filled, you can withdraw it and then that frees up you to submit an app for another judge you have not applied to yet.

If a position gets marked as "filled" on Oscar, and you have applied to it, it will no longer be counted towards your limit. If you know the position has been filled but the judge/clerks haven't updated Oscar, you can withdraw your application and it likewise will be removed from your limit, but note that you cannot reapply to that same position so make sure your info is good. Finally if a position on Oscar "expires," meaning it was posted a long time ago and hasn't been maintained by the judge/clerks, any application to that position WILL COUNT towards your limit still for at least 30 days after the expiration, so those are likely the positions from which you should withdraw asap if you find yourself with 100 outstanding apps.

thank you both

[Anonymous User]

Curious as to which COA judges send confirmation of receipt emails and letters?

[Anonymous User]

Curious as to which COA judges send confirmation of receipt emails and letters?

Pryor and Cox on the 11th Circuit both sent letters.

Also, 6th Cir interview invitation. Here's hoping.

[Anonymous User]

Pp would you be willing to share the 6th Circuit judge?

[BlueDiamond]

I have another possibly dumb question. If an OSCAR judge asks for recommendations, will the system let someone apply if they have not uploaded recommendations? My school sets a limit on the number of letters they allow us to get from professors; so I was going to apply with reference lists and if they want letters get them from the professors afterward.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I have another possibly dumb question. If an OSCAR judge asks for recommendations, will the system let someone apply if they have not uploaded recommendations? My school sets a limit on the number of letters they allow us to get from professors; so I was going to apply with reference lists and if they want letters get them from the professors afterward.

I don't know if OSCAR lets you apply without LORs, but don't most judges require LORs as part of the application? I don't think they'll contact you to get the letters if they're interested, I think they'll just toss your application as incomplete. (Unless they know the recommenders, maybe.)

[lolwat]

OSCAR does let you apply without LORs.

But especially with clerkships, unless you're top 1% in your class or something, you need to assume the judge has hundreds of applications with people just as qualified as you are, so if your application is incomplete and they have 499 more that are complete, yours is probably getting trashed.

WTF is wrong with your school. Mine probably has the shittiest clerkship placement out of all the schools in the T(number) range but at least they don't artifically do something that has a negative effect on students' chances of getting clerkships.

[BlueDiamond]

OSCAR does let you apply without LORs.

But especially with clerkships, unless you're top 1% in your class or something, you need to assume the judge has hundreds of applications with people just as qualified as you are, so if your application is incomplete and they have 499 more that are complete, yours is probably getting trashed.

WTF is wrong with your school. Mine probably has the shittiest clerkship placement out of all the schools in the T(number) range but at least they don't artifically do something that has a negative effect on students' chances of getting clerkships.

Yeah this is all sort of what I figured, but I wasn't sure what else to do. And they limit us to 75 clerkship applications altogether for some reason - and that has to be split between federal and state. So I basically applied to the 2 states that I wanted most and did all appeals and supreme court judges in those. And when I was done all I had left was like 8 applications. I'm not really competitive on the federal level anyway, but figured it can't hurt to apply. Just stinks that I'll always have the "what if" rolling around in my mind since my school doesn't allow more LoRs to be sent.

[Anonymous User]

WTF is wrong with your school. Mine probably has the shittiest clerkship placement out of all the schools in the T(number) range but at least they don't artifically do something that has a negative effect on students' chances of getting clerkships.

At least your school doesn't weed out clerkship candidates through a "committee" review which provides an institutional recommendation. If you are not selected by the committee they won't collate or mail an recommendation letters for you. You are on your own with the professors mailing things individually. Then to further ensure that you don't get a job, they put all of the "elect's" materials in a binder and send that off to the judge. So when your materials arrive, the judge/clerk already has an initial suspicion as to why you are not in the binder sent from the school. Whiskey, tango, foxtrot, Batman.

[A. Nony Mouse]

WTF is wrong with your school. Mine probably has the shittiest clerkship placement out of all the schools in the T(number) range but at least they don't artifically do something that has a negative effect on students' chances of getting clerkships.

At least your school doesn't weed out clerkship candidates through a "committee" review which provides an institutional recommendation. If you are not selected by the committee they won't collate or mail an recommendation letters for you. You are on your own with the professors mailing things individually. Then to further ensure that you don't get a job, they put all of the "elect's" materials in a binder and send that off to the judge. So when your materials arrive, the judge/clerk already has an initial suspicion as to why you are not in the binder sent from the school. Whiskey, tango, foxtrot, Batman.

That really sucks. I can't imagine how excluding the "un-elects" helps the school at all - it's not like you're writing in crayon on shopping bags or something.

[Anonymous User]

WTF is wrong with your school. Mine probably has the shittiest clerkship placement out of all the schools in the T(number) range but at least they don't artifically do something that has a negative effect on students' chances of getting clerkships.

At least your school doesn't weed out clerkship candidates through a "committee" review which provides an institutional recommendation. If you are not selected by the committee they won't collate or mail an recommendation letters for you. You are on your own with the professors mailing things individually. Then to further ensure that you don't get a job, they put all of the "elect's" materials in a binder and send that off to the judge. So when your materials arrive, the judge/clerk already has an initial suspicion as to why you are not in the binder sent from the school. Whiskey, tango, foxtrot, Batman.

That really sucks. I can't imagine how excluding the "un-elects" helps the school at all - it's not like you're writing in crayon on shopping bags or something.

You have no idea how much it sucks to not be able to apply to judges who only accept paper applications because you know you really can only burden the professors so much to mail stuff out - if they end up doing it to begin with. Awful experience in addition to the application process as a whole.

[Anonymous User]

Anything new? Sorry to the PPs I feel your pain.