Type of COA Judge Forum

[AlwaysPlayTheFox]

In terms of post-clerkship outcomes, does it make a big difference if you clerk for a judge that is "senior status" vs. one that is active?

I understand the case load/amount of interesting work is reduced for the senior status judges, but does that hurt post-clerkship opportunities?

Same question holds for district court judges.

[Anonymous User]

In terms of post-clerkship outcomes, does it make a big difference if you clerk for a judge that is "senior status" vs. one that is active?

I understand the case load/amount of interesting work is reduced for the senior status judges, but does that hurt post-clerkship opportunities?

Same question holds for district court judges.

It really depends on the judge and the degree of docket change. E.g., my Judge just took senior status. So the main difference will be no child porn and no pro se cases, which is really just a plus.

[Anonymous User]

In terms of post-clerkship outcomes, does it make a big difference if you clerk for a judge that is "senior status" vs. one that is active?

I understand the case load/amount of interesting work is reduced for the senior status judges, but does that hurt post-clerkship opportunities?

Same question holds for district court judges.

I clerked for two senior status judges (district and circuit). Both judges carried 100% case loads. The only difference was that at the circuit level, my judge had one fewer clerks for the same amount of work and only participated in en banc cases where the judge was on the panel.

From a post clerkship opportunity perspective, I got callbacks from almost all the major litigation boutiques, and offers from several.

[AlwaysPlayTheFox]

Thanks so much for the info!

[Anonymous User]

Currently clerking for a senior district judge. He still has a 100% civil caseload and has scaled back only on his criminal docket, which means nothing for his clerks, because we very rarely work on criminal matters. Wouldn't seem to affect our ability to sell the same level of experience as prior clerks during interviews.

[Anonymous User]

Agree that it doesn't make a significant difference in terms of experience. But unless you're clerking for a senior feeder judge, it'll be slightly more helpful for your career to clerk for a non-senior judge--more likely (over time) for your firm to practice in front of the judge, the judge's network will be active longer.

[Anonymous User]

In terms of experience, it won't make a difference except for en band proceedings. In terms of career prospects, I think feeders aside, clerkships with senior are viewed as less impressive than clerkships with active judges. That said, I think outside of feeders and DC Cir and a few clerkships like that, how impressive your clerkship is really doesn't matter in terms of job prospects. That is to say, if your law school credentials put you in play for certain firms, 6th Circuit versus 7th Circuit really won't matter much, and senior status versus not will matter even less. At least in my experience recruiting with national firms and lit boutiques, grades and law school is really the first criterion.