Clerks Taking Questions Forum

[Anonymous User]

Weird question incoming. I'm about to start a clerkship and am interested in gym use and appropriateness of arriving at the court in athletic clothes in the morning. At my current job, I ride my bike to work in gym clothes, use the gym at work, shower in the locker room at the building's gym and then start my day. I googled and see that there is a gym in my courthouse, but wondering if it would be acceptable to follow the same routine at the court (arrive in workout clothes, etc.).

[Anonymous User]

Weird question incoming. I'm about to start a clerkship and am interested in gym use and appropriateness of arriving at the court in athletic clothes in the morning. At my current job, I ride my bike to work in gym clothes, use the gym at work, shower in the locker room at the building's gym and then start my day. I googled and see that there is a gym in my courthouse, but wondering if it would be acceptable to follow the same routine at the court (arrive in workout clothes, etc.).

Depends entirely on the judge. Jerry Smith wouldn't care if you did all of your work in your gym clothes, for example. On the whole, you should be ok though, in my chambers, we dont use the public entrance and no one would know how I arrived at work unless they came in with me.

[nixy]

Weird question incoming. I'm about to start a clerkship and am interested in gym use and appropriateness of arriving at the court in athletic clothes in the morning. At my current job, I ride my bike to work in gym clothes, use the gym at work, shower in the locker room at the building's gym and then start my day. I googled and see that there is a gym in my courthouse, but wondering if it would be acceptable to follow the same routine at the court (arrive in workout clothes, etc.).

Depends entirely on the judge. Jerry Smith wouldn't care if you did all of your work in your gym clothes, for example. On the whole, you should be ok though, in my chambers, we dont use the public entrance and no one would know how I arrived at work unless they came in with me.

Agreed. Some judges may differ, but I agree that it's not very likely that anyone will see you come in (or care how you're dressed when you do).

[namefromplace]

I am about to start a SSC clerkship and would one day like to go into government. Perhaps the state AG's office or the governor's office. These offices are often parties before the court.

I want to network with them but I am not quite sure where to draw the ethics line and how to get to know people in these orgs better. I don't want to do anything improper but it would be nice to make connections.

Talk to your judge. Tell him/her about your goals and he/she will tell you where the line is. I think that generally active networking (i.e. going to lunch) with parties likely to be before the court (like someone in the stage AG's office) or with clear political connections (i.e. a candidate running for governor) would be inappropriate for a clerk to meet with, but, again, it's up to your judge. Also, your judge is likely pretty well connected with folks in government and can introduce you to them and perhaps help line up a job.

[Anonymous User]

worth it to update dct judges you applied to about accepting a coa clerkship for the term after said dct judges' terms?

[Anonymous User]

worth it to update dct judges you applied to about accepting a coa clerkship for the term after said dct judges' terms?

Yes. Had friends that did this and worked out well for them. Got a bunch of interest after.

[Anonymous User]

worth it to update dct judges you applied to about accepting a coa clerkship for the term after said dct judges' terms?

Yes. Had friends that did this and worked out well for them. Got a bunch of interest after.

What's the best way to update them? Just submit an updated resume/cover letter? Call chambers?

[Anonymous User]

worth it to update dct judges you applied to about accepting a coa clerkship for the term after said dct judges' terms?

Yes. Had friends that did this and worked out well for them. Got a bunch of interest after.

What's the best way to update them? Just submit an updated resume/cover letter? Call chambers?

If you originally applied by mail or email, send the updated resume that way with a cover letter explaining the update. Mail and email just about always gets read. If you applied by OSCAR...trickier because an updated OSCAR app won't always get noticed unless chambers is good about sorting by update date. I'd update on OSCAR and also consider mailing the update unless the OSCAR page explicitly says no mail. Calling chambers is kind of a crapshoot; most should appreciate the difficulty of the situation and be pleasant, but there's always a chance you run into a grumpy JA who doesn't want to talk to applicants.

[Anonymous User]

If I secured a district court clerkship for 2022-23, is it worth sending an update to a CoA judge to whom I applied for 2021-22?

[Anonymous User]

If I secured a district court clerkship for 2022-23, is it worth sending an update to a CoA judge to whom I applied for 2021-22?

I'm not a clerk, but so far the response to every variant of this question has been "yes" so I don't see why it would be different

[Anonymous User]

If I secured a district court clerkship for 2022-23, is it worth sending an update to a CoA judge to whom I applied for 2021-22?

I'm not a clerk, but so far the response to every variant of this question has been "yes" so I don't see why it would be different

Yes, and I know somebody who got a clerkship this way but it is less common than the reverse. FWIW, it was a recent appointee who was also looking to fill in people sooner rather than later, but not urgently. Think like 9 months out.

[Anonymous User]

Is there any unique substantive appeal to EDNY or is it competitive because NYC? Like do all the “interesting” cases all go to SDNY so that EDNY is more like idk the dct for St. Louis, Denver, Pittsburgh or any other city that isn’t SF, Chicago, LA? Sorry if this is a really dumb question

[Anonymous User]

Duplicate

[Anonymous User]

Is there any unique substantive appeal to EDNY or is it competitive because NYC? Like do all the “interesting” cases all go to SDNY so that EDNY is more like idk the dct for St. Louis, Denver, Pittsburgh or any other city that isn’t SF, Chicago, LA? Sorry if this is a really dumb question

I didn't do a district clerkship but clerked on CA2 and stayed in NY, so feel reasonably comfortable taking a crack at this. Seems to me that most of EDNY's particular substantive appeal is on the criminal side of things. At least historically, EDNY has gotten a lot of important drug / terrorism / gang cases -- El Chapo's a recent prominent example. (My understanding is this is partly due to JFK being located in EDNY, partly due to the particular expertise of EDNY USAO, I'm sure there are other factors as well.)

NYC location is absolutely a major part of the appeal/competitiveness. Being in the nation's biggest legal market is a huge plus for recruiting and overall career benefit. A possibly underappreciated aspect of the location is that there's a pool of really good lawyers for judgeships. Though EDNY judges definitely vary in quality, the average EDNY judge is well above the average for other non-SDNY courts in the circuit, and there have been some really highly-regarded judges on the court over the years. (Weinstein and Korman, for example, or more recently Kovner seems like a superstar.)

[Anonymous User]

Is there any unique substantive appeal to EDNY or is it competitive because NYC? Like do all the “interesting” cases all go to SDNY so that EDNY is more like idk the dct for St. Louis, Denver, Pittsburgh or any other city that isn’t SF, Chicago, LA? Sorry if this is a really dumb question

Mainly because NYC.Though historically EDNY received (and still receives because) lots of organized crime cases (more gang less mob now obv) and lots of drug cases generally (organized and “unorganized,” especially because of the airports. And it still receives more than its fair share of complex commercial litigation (though not on a scale like SDNY.). Great district to clerk in.

Obviously due to the competition the AUSAs you see day in and out May/will be better than those you see in other districts too

[Anonymous User]

Location is obviously a huge factor as it is for similarly competitive courts (NDCA, DDC, SDNY, etc.) but the EDNY docket is (for many) preferable to that of SDNY. As others have mentioned, a high percentage of the cases are big-ticket criminal cases with a smaller portion of that (albeit still large) being securities cases. The fact that the lawyers involved are often high quality also adds to this and the reputations of some of the judges now and in the past: Weinstein, Gleeson, Ross, Garaufis, Vitaliano, Chen, Matsumoto, Dearie, etc. and I expect Kovner and Komitee to be very well-regarded and competitive judges in the next few years.

That said, there are definitely a few judges on the court you want to avoid: Mauskopf, Irizarry, Feuerstein...

[Anonymous User]

How common is it for judges to hire a clerk to start in January/February?

[Anonymous User]

How common is it for judges to hire a clerk to start in January/February?

Seems rather uncommon but not unheard of. FWIW, I am clerking for a judge starting in January and one consideration you will need to make is whether you can support yourself for those months if not leaving directly from a job. That is, if you are leaving from a clerkship ending on the normal timeline or starting after graduation. Some firms will take you for the short stint if you summered there, but many won't because it doesn't make sense to start you and then have you leave right away.

[Anonymous User]

Location is obviously a huge factor as it is for similarly competitive courts (NDCA, DDC, SDNY, etc.) but the EDNY docket is (for many) preferable to that of SDNY. As others have mentioned, a high percentage of the cases are big-ticket criminal cases with a smaller portion of that (albeit still large) being securities cases. The fact that the lawyers involved are often high quality also adds to this and the reputations of some of the judges now and in the past: Weinstein, Gleeson, Ross, Garaufis, Vitaliano, Chen, Matsumoto, Dearie, etc. and I expect Kovner and Komitee to be very well-regarded and competitive judges in the next few years.

That said, there are definitely a few judges on the court you want to avoid: Mauskopf, Irizarry, Feuerstein...

Agreed on whom to avoid; I would also add Block for lack of respect within the bar (and among at least some of his colleagues).

I would add that, on the civil side, there is an unusually high number of interesting antitrust cases that go through EDNY for whatever reason. Also, interesting civil rights cases related to immigration or detention can reach EDNY. Recall that one of the first Trump Muslim Ban TROs came out of EDNY, and so did Iqbal from Civ Pro.

[Wild Card]

Agreed on whom to avoid; I would also add Block for lack of respect within the bar (and among at least some of his colleagues).

Kuntz had 100 cases on his Sept. 2019 six-month list . . . .

[Anonymous User]

How common is it for judges to hire a clerk to start in January/February?

Although it arguably works better for chambers, it is pretty uncommon, other than in Utah where it is fairly standard, especially on the state side and the Fed Cir side.

[Anonymous User]

How common is it for judges to hire a clerk to start in January/February?

Although it arguably works better for chambers, it is pretty uncommon, other than in Utah where it is fairly standard, especially on the state side and the Fed Cir side.

I've seen some judges stagger starts with 1-2 starting in January. That way new clerks always have some with experience to learn from and lean on but it's rather uncommon.

[Anonymous User]

How is FedSoc viewed by non-FedSoc judge chambers?

Irrelevant and looked at purely on merit?
Ew gross?
Don't bother because it's expected they will go to FedSoc judges anyway?

I clerked for a fairly liberal COA judge. I don't remember ever seeing any applications listing FedSoc (and we looked at hundreds)--not sure if it's because FedSoc people didn't apply, or because they took it off their application.

It was important to my judge that you had a reason for wanting to clerk specifically for him/her. I think if we got a FedSoc application, we would probably take it as an indication that you just blanketed the circuit with applications, which would be a negative for us. That said, this could probably be mitigated if you explained in your cover letter why you were applying to us.

[Anonymous User]

if rejected post-interview (assuming you were "close" but just didn't make the cut), is it fine to reapply for a later term? If so, is there a waiting period after rejection or can you respond right away saying that you would like to be considered for the following term as well?

If the judge actually told you that you were "close," then maybe. But in normal circumstances, I'd say no. I wouldn't assume you were close just because you got an interview. It's just as likely that the judge liked your application on paper but concluded after the interview that you weren't the best fit. If they really liked you but didn't have enough spots, they could have offered a position for a subsequent term themselves.

I guess it never hurts to apply, because it doesn't cost you anything, but if you make it to the interview stage and don't get hired, I think your chances of getting hired for a subsequent term are not high.

[Anonymous User]

if rejected post-interview (assuming you were "close" but just didn't make the cut), is it fine to reapply for a later term? If so, is there a waiting period after rejection or can you respond right away saying that you would like to be considered for the following term as well?

If the judge actually told you that you were "close," then maybe. But in normal circumstances, I'd say no. I wouldn't assume you were close just because you got an interview. It's just as likely that the judge liked your application on paper but concluded after the interview that you weren't the best fit. If they really liked you but didn't have enough spots, they could have offered a position for a subsequent term themselves.

I guess it never hurts to apply, because it doesn't cost you anything, but if you make it to the interview stage and don't get hired, I think your chances of getting hired for a subsequent term are not high.

Former clerk. Agree with this.