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By way of brief background, I'm in the top 1-3% at my T-50 and would love to snag a COA clerkship somewhere in the 5th Circuit. Through office visits and other social interactions, I've developed a good relationship with one of my professors in whose class I made the top grade. He's agreed to write a LOR for me, but requested that I draft the letter myself. I understand that this is becoming more common, but I'm still at a bit of a loss on how to approach it. It feels strange to blow my own horn, but I also know that this could be a great opportunity to take control of structuring a highly effective letter (which I know is one of the key elements in the clerkship application) to correspond to my goals.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, particularly from current/former clerks as to what would catch their eye in a LOR from someone in my position (high class rank but at a non-T14 school).

I think the greatest difficulty is navigating the line between underselling yourself and overselling yourself when presenting the letter to the professor. There is no great advice on how to do this, but I would aim towards overselling yourself as the professor is more likely to tone it down then embellish it.

As for content, I would focus on ideas such as curiosity, personality, work ethic, and writing skills

This is definitely a suboptimal situation. In my experience a good recommender will write something far stronger than most anyone would write about themselves. Try to find a new recommender? Ask the prof for samples of other letters so you can at least see the types of things that profs tend to write?

Do you have any of the LORs that people have written for you in the past? I was asked to write my own once and based it on a couple of past LORs that I happen to have hard copies of.

when you say your professor asked you to draft the letter, he specify whether he would be using it verbatim or whether he wanted to use it as a starting point?

OP here. No letters that have been written in the past. Also, the prof said he would use it as a template to work from and show me the completed letter before sending.

Emma. wrote:This is definitely a suboptimal situation. In my experience a good recommender will write something far stronger than most anyone would write about themselves.

This. You can write that you got an A+ (or whatever) in the professor's class. You can write about your excellent analytic and writing skills. But what you can't write on your own--at least not without completely making something up--is that you were one of the top 2 or 3 students the professor has had in ten years of teaching. Or that your ability and temperament compared favorably to other students who went on to clerk. And it's generally those kinds of statements that will make a recommendation stand out. Believe me, judges receive hundreds of rec letters a cycle touting students' great exam performances. They're not helpful.

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rpupkin wrote:

Emma. wrote:This is definitely a suboptimal situation. In my experience a good recommender will write something far stronger than most anyone would write about themselves.

This. You can write that you got an A+ (or whatever) in the professor's class. You can write about your excellent analytic and writing skills. But what you can't write on your own--at least not without completely making something up--is that you were one of the top 2 or 3 students the professor has had in ten years of teaching. Or that your ability and temperament compared favorably to other students who went on to clerk. And it's generally those kinds of statements that will make a recommendation stand out. Believe me, judges receive hundreds of rec letters a cycle touting students' great exam performances. They're not helpful.

I completely agree that these are the types of things that could make a difference to your application. And what is more, you could actually hurt your application by writing yourself a subpar letter. Maybe go talk to the clerkship person at your career services office, explain the situation (without outing the prof) and ask whether they can give you a sample letter. If they have access to real letters, maybe they could find a really strong one and redact any identifying info, then you could use that as a template. Or better yet, just give that to your prof as a template.

No matter what, it is going to be difficult/awkward for you to write the kind of thing that could help your app, and not that hard to inadvertently write something that comes across as a lukewarm recommendation when compared to all the super effusive letters that professors often write.

You want a professor who likes you enough that if/when the judge calls, he will give a glowing review. Ideally, you want a professor who will affirmatively call the judge's chambers (if given a list of your top 5-10 choices) and sing your praises. If a professor does not have a strong and positive enough opinion about you to spin out a letter of recommendation for which zero research and minimal energy is required, he isn't an optimal recommender.

OP. Thanks for the feedback. On another note then, is there value in having a judge's former clerk (whom you have developed a relationship with) contact the judge to recommend you?

Anonymous User wrote:OP. Thanks for the feedback. On another note then, is there value in having a judge's former clerk (whom you have developed a relationship with) contact the judge to recommend you?

Yes.

Anonymous User wrote:OP. Thanks for the feedback. On another note then, is there value in having a judge's former clerk (whom you have developed a relationship with) contact the judge to recommend you?

Hugely valuable. I clerked for two judges and each of my replacements was someone I recommended. To be fair, both were also interns to other judges on the court and those judges also recommended them. But I was the one who got their applications on the top of the pile, so to speak. One was the only applicant the judge interviewed and offered the job on the spot.

My judges liked knowing that the applicants were genuinely good people who I liked as friends and (sorta) co-workers. That is generally impossible to determine by talking to someone's boss.