Clerkships for Transfers Forum

[Anonymous User]

For those of us who have pending transfer applications, what should we be doing as soon as we decide which school to attend to secure a federal clerkship for after graduation?

[brotherdarkness]

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[middlemarch]

Obtain one strong clerkship recommendation letter from a professor at your former school. Choose a professor whose class you did well in; if the professor is well-regarded/famous that's a big plus. You'll need three letters total, so do well 2L year and pick up two more letter writers.

[Anonymous User]

So am I excluded from doing a clerkship immediately after graduation as a transfer? I know that my former law school instructs professors not to write recommendations for students who have transferred out...

[brotherdarkness]

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[middlemarch]

So am I excluded from doing a clerkship immediately after graduation as a transfer? I know that my former law school instructs professors not to write recommendations for students who have transferred out...

That is insanely awful of your old institution. I would ask anyway, because it's unenforceable, especially if you have a good relationship with a 1L professor. You're not at all excluded from a clerkship immediately following graduation. You can get offers with one semester of 2L grades, though I agree 2 semesters is more often requested for transfer students. Even then, it all depends on the hiring cycle of the judges. Yes, most very competitive judges may be done hiring for the post-graduation year by the time you finish 2L year, but definitely not all judges, and not even all competitive ones (see, e.g., Judge Sullivan on SDNY just posting a 2014 opening!).

[Anonymous User]

@brotherdarkness - do you think it's possible to get a clerkship as a transfer straight out of law school in a less popular district?

[brotherdarkness]

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[jess]

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[Nebby]

I'm a transfer student. If I plan to apply to some FedClerks for post-grad I'm definitely also sending applications to my home state (Kansas) because the chances of success are much higher.

OP, you should do that too!

[Anonymous User]

YMMV for how many semesters of grades judges want to see. I transferred into UT, crushed it in the fall and got interviews in the spring with just one transferred semester grades in. Other judges I'm applying with (all in fairly competitive courts) have just started reviewing applications because they all wanted two full years of grades. I'm not sure how that will affect me as a transfer (I suspect it will vary from one judge to the next).

The problem for transfers arises with the judges (COA and hyper-competitive districts) that want applications in November/December of 2L now that the plan has gone to complete crap.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I'm a transfer student. If I plan to apply to some FedClerks for post-grad I'm definitely also sending applications to my home state (Kansas) because the chances of success are much higher.

OP, you should do that too!

I mean, the chances of success are certainly better than for districts like SDNY, but I'm not sure I'd say chances of success are much higher. It's all a little hard to predict. Everyone is best off applying broadly (unless maybe you've got feeder stats, I suppose).

[tww909]

I don't think there is any bar to applying for clerkships immediately following graduation unlike what some here have said. Granted the plan's demise impacts this somewhat (although that would be a problem even staying at your old school), but my transfer class at SLS had multiple competitive district court clerks immediately after graduation.

I chose to wait until 3L to apply (for a year out) and that worked out well for me, but that wasn't a function of anything except desire to line up recommendations and write a note, etc.

[ClerkAdvisor]

FYI, many (most? all?) judges are going to want to see more than just your 2L grades at your new school. This means that many of you will have to apply to clerkships starting a year out from graduation rather than immediately post-graduation.

NO. This does not comport with my experiences on either side of the hiring process. In chambers, we treated transfers like any other applicant, and on the application side, all my friends who were transfers that were hired as clerks were hired with just 2L grades (COA and DCT).

More importantly, I'm not sure why you stated this proposition as an absolute -- its a disservice to applicants to make such blanket statements, particularly when they are less than accurate.

[NYSprague]

FYI, many (most? all?) judges are going to want to see more than just your 2L grades at your new school. This means that many of you will have to apply to clerkships starting a year out from graduation rather than immediately post-graduation.

Have you applied to clerkship already? I thought you were a SA this summer, isn't it too early for you to apply?

[A. Nony Mouse]

FYI, many (most? all?) judges are going to want to see more than just your 2L grades at your new school. This means that many of you will have to apply to clerkships starting a year out from graduation rather than immediately post-graduation.

Have you applied to clerkship already? I thought you were a SA this summer, isn't it too early for you to apply?

With the plan gone, a lot of people have been applying after getting back the first semester of 2L grades. No idea what BD has or hasn't done, but it wouldn't be weird for someone to have applied already.

[BVest]

Even if the plan hadn't fallen apart, rising 3Ls [edited] would currently be finalizing and submitting their apps on OSCAR. (Under the plan, the judges would have downloaded the applications at the end of June).

And with the plan gone, there were a handful of judges taking apps late last fall (as soon as the plan blew up).

[brotherdarkness]

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[beepboopbeep]

Even if the plan hadn't fallen apart, rising 2Ls would currently be finalizing and submitting their apps on OSCAR. (Under the plan, the judges would have downloaded the applications at the end of June).

And with the plan gone, there were a handful of judges taking apps late last fall (as soon as the plan blew up).

As in previous rising 2Ls? Because the current crop of rising 2Ls can't start applying (at least officially through OSCAR) until August 1. It's read-only for us right now.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Even if the plan hadn't fallen apart, rising 2Ls would currently be finalizing and submitting their apps on OSCAR. (Under the plan, the judges would have downloaded the applications at the end of June).

And with the plan gone, there were a handful of judges taking apps late last fall (as soon as the plan blew up).

As in previous rising 2Ls? Because the current crop of rising 2Ls can't start applying (at least officially through OSCAR) until August 1. It's read-only for us right now.

I think he must have meant 2Ls/rising 3Ls. At least, that's who the plan applied to, when it existed.

[BVest]

Even if the plan hadn't fallen apart, rising 2Ls would currently be finalizing and submitting their apps on OSCAR. (Under the plan, the judges would have downloaded the applications at the end of June).

And with the plan gone, there were a handful of judges taking apps late last fall (as soon as the plan blew up).

As in previous rising 2Ls? Because the current crop of rising 2Ls can't start applying (at least officially through OSCAR) until August 1. It's read-only for us right now.

I think he must have meant 2Ls/rising 3Ls. At least, that's who the plan applied to, when it existed.

Mistyped... meant rising 3Ls. Sorry. Argh. (Hopefully the judges I'm applying to aren't reading this)

There will likely be a number of judges (possibly an increasing number of judges) taking applications this November for their September 2016 start dates, so you rising 2Ls get ready for that. (Those were slots I didn't go for as a transfer, due to having no grades at my new school yet; I started applying in the spring).

[beepboopbeep]

Mistyped... meant rising 3Ls. Sorry. Argh. (Hopefully the judges I'm applying to aren't reading this)

There will likely be a number of judges (possibly an increasing number of judges) taking applications this November for their September 2016 start dates, so you rising 2Ls get ready for that. (Those were slots I didn't go for as a transfer, due to having no grades at my new school yet; I started applying in the spring).

No worries man. Just wanted to be clear, especially since OP is a current rising 2L - seems like the process will be starting damn fast, which probably hurts the chances of a transfer getting recs and new grades ready to nab a competitive clerkship. I've already seen a number of 2016 starts on there, though most aren't for rising 2Ls yet - hopefully you can tell how excited I am to be getting recommenders/cover letters/writing samples around over the summer before OCI...

[Jchance]

First thing to focus on is to secure 3 rec letters, either from old school's profs, 1L summer employer or new school's profs ASAP.
Second, most likely immediately-post-grad CoA gigs are not an option because they want apps/make decisions in December of your 2L. You may want to look at least 1 year out of school for CoA gig.
Third, immediately-post-grad district court gigs are available. Whoever tells you otherwise is flat out lying to you.

P.S. The class rank question is pretty tricky, because (most?) new school won't rank you until the end of your 2L year.

[Anonymous User]

question re: 1L employer recs

If you are an SA at a biglaw firm, who do you typically ask for recs? One of your summer assigners? Partners? I realize this is probably firm/situation dependent, but any advice or anecdotes based on what you guys might have seen would be greatly appreciated.

[middlemarch]

question re: 1L employer recs

If you are an SA at a biglaw firm, who do you typically ask for recs? One of your summer assigners? Partners? I realize this is probably firm/situation dependent, but any advice or anecdotes based on what you guys might have seen would be greatly appreciated.

First of all, you should probably ask someone who is a counsel or partner. If you have a particular judge/jurisdiction in mind, someone who has clerked for or practices before that judge/jurisdiction would be helpful (obviously a letter from a judge's former clerk would be tremendous) though not necessary of course.

Next, I'd pick someone in that first category (1) with whom you have worked closely on a substantial assignment and for whom you've produced a good writing product, OR (2) someone who has seen a large cross-section of your reviews and writing samples (e.g. someone who gives you mid-summer/end-of-summer evaluations, who is on the summer associate hiring committee). Basically you want a somewhat senior attorney who has seen your work, can speak to it, and possibly can compare it to other writing product he/she has evaluated. If you can't have someone like (2) write the letter itself, it's useful to have someone like (2) at least serve as a reference, whom a judge could call if he/she wants.