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I sent my clerkship application in August, and received a call-back within a week from the judge's secretary. She informed me that they received the application, but the judge does not begin interviewing until April. Since that time, I have worked in my school's criminal defense clinic, and the experience adds substantively to my resume. Would it be proper to send a letter of continued interest to the judge, along with with an updated resume and reference list?

ceereeus420 wrote:I sent my clerkship application in August, and received a call-back within a week from the judge's secretary. She informed me that they received the application, but the judge does not begin interviewing until April. Since that time, I have worked in my school's criminal defense clinic, and the experience adds substantively to my resume. Would it be proper to send a letter of continued interest to the judge, along with with an updated resume and reference list?

If they're not going to be interviewing until April, I would wait until after you have your fall semester grades come in (which are hopefully good) since they will probably want to see those if the judge's hiring timeframe is in April.

Disclosure: 3L so obviously I have not been through the clerkship process on the judge's side, so don't weigh my opinion too heavily.

I would only send something along if you have something substantive to update the Judge on (other than "I'm still interested...") and when you do send something I would make it count. I would say you could send one update between now and April without being annoying (maybe two if something big comes up). I'm assuming the clinic goes all fall semester--do you get any sort of grade? I know some schools at least do some sort of pass/fail if the clinic is for credit. At any rate I would wait until fall grades come out. That way you will be able to update the Judge on everything important that will happend to you between now and a possible interview in one communication. You don't want to be that kid that sent like four letters and annoys the clerk/JA (or worse, the Judge). Chambers isn't going to lose your application (its not like applying to a law firm where it can sometimes be to your benefit to stay in the recruiting contact's ear).

Also as a side note, for future reference, judge's secretaries are know as judicial assistants or "JAs" just so you have the lingo down. I don't know if the term secretary would be offensive but better safe than sorry I guess...