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What do you think? Will clerking for a conservative district court judge ruin my progressive public interest job plans?

Anonymous User wrote:What do you think? Will clerking for a conservative district court judge ruin my progressive public interest job plans?

No. Everyone knows that you don't have as much control over where you clerk as say firms. Plus the judiciary is filled with lots of Dubya appointees. It will be fine. Also, even if I said it was questionable, would you really seriously consider turning down a good clerkship merely because of this worry?

What do you think? Will clerking for a conservative district court judge ruin my progressive public interest job plans?

No. The only exception would be if you wanted to do PI work in that specific district and s/he has an especially bad reputation (for being a hack, not just for being conservative). But even then, the possibility that the organization might have a former clerk to put on his/her cases very well might outweigh the negative association.

What does the rest of your resume say? Things make more sense in context. A conservative clerkship on an application devoted to public interest and progressive goals is probably not going to be an issue.

I think that at the district court level, politics really don't make that much difference. I am at a very different end of the political spectrum from my judge, but it really hasn't affected how I work with them. For one thing, so much of what you do is not about politics, it's just about the facts of the case in front of you and the established law. It's not about novel interpretations of anything - a lot of the motions that come in have a pretty clear answer. (Obviously not all, but plenty.) This might be different for COA (though at the state level it isn't very).

I think personality makes a bigger difference. Political orientation doesn't really tell you what a person is like to work with.

FWIW, I am in exact same boat, and pursued this inquiry to many practitioners prior to the interview/accepting, and received the same feedback that you are receiving here from others.