Clerking for the Tax Court or Delaware Court of Chancery Forum

[brotherdarkness]

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[Nelson]

Penn sends a handful of kids to Chancery each year. My understanding is that good grades are required and that it's competitive; not as competitive as a feeder COA, but probably roughly comparable to an average (non-SDNY/DDC) district court. My best advice is to talk to some Berk students who have clerked there in the past and figure out who you need a rec from/who can make a call for you. There are some corp profs here who seem to be key since they have good relationships with judges there.

[DelDad]

Former Chancery clerk here, and the above is credited. Good grades and a good writing sample are necessary. Corporate law doesn't have to be your only interest, but you need to be able to show (either by grades in specific classes, the subject of your writing sample, or the type of work that you did during the summer) that it is at least a strong interest.

The members of the court correspond with, teach with, or appear on panels with corporate law faculty across the country; although it's better to have a recommendation from a junior corporate law professor that knows you than from a bigwig corporate law prof who doesn't know you, if there is a clear thought leader in corporate law at your school, your application will stick out (not unsumountably so) without a recommendation from that person.

If applying to one member of the court, it is customary to apply to all five.
Note that Chancellor Leo Strine was just confirmed as the new Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, and his replacement has not yet been named. If applying to the court, make sure you keep up to date on that process.

If you get an interview, definitely find an alum other contact who is a former clerk for the judge and find out as much as possible beforehand. At that point, the judge will be looking for a good personal fit, and all the members of the court are very different from each other.

[brotherdarkness]

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