D. Court pace v. appeals court pace Forum

[objctnyrhnr]

so I am in a d. court clerkship right now, and I am blown away by the pace relative to my expectations going in. when I say pace, I mean the speed at which I need to get things done in order to keep up (and of course the amount of depth that I need to go into with each of those assignments in order to give each party their due and make sure the judge is prepared). I am frequently working like 830-6:30 or 7. and oftentimes even later. I love the work and I am more than staying afloat, but the amount of hours this is requiring is certainly a bit of a surprise (not that i'm complaining. i would have gladly taken it even if I had been told it was 8-8 every day). am I putting too much in?

i was wondering if others are having this experience, and I was also wondering how this compares to circuit or ssc clerkships?

[Anonymous User]

so I am in a d. court clerkship right now, and I am blown away by the pace relative to my expectations going in. when I say pace, I mean the speed at which I need to get things done in order to keep up (and of course the amount of depth that I need to go into with each of those assignments in order to give each party their due and make sure the judge is prepared). I am frequently working like 830-6:30 or 7. and oftentimes even later. I love the work and I am more than staying afloat, but the amount of hours this is requiring is certainly a bit of a surprise (not that i'm complaining. i would have gladly taken it even if I had been told it was 8-8 every day). am I putting too much in?

i was wondering if others are having this experience, and I was also wondering how this compares to circuit or ssc clerkships?

Having just come off a CA9 clerkship and now working in a D.Ct, I can tell you that the D.ct is way busier than even the busiest circuit, and of course far more fast paced. But I don't think your hours are unusual at all. Plenty of folks work 12 hour days and still have to work weekends at least some points during their clerkship.

[Anonymous User]

I'm having this experience too. I'm way busier than I thought I would be, and my COA friends seem to have pretty awesome schedules (generally 8:30-5, though this varies by circuit).

[Anonymous User]

so I am in a d. court clerkship right now, and I am blown away by the pace relative to my expectations going in. when I say pace, I mean the speed at which I need to get things done in order to keep up (and of course the amount of depth that I need to go into with each of those assignments in order to give each party their due and make sure the judge is prepared). I am frequently working like 830-6:30 or 7. and oftentimes even later. I love the work and I am more than staying afloat, but the amount of hours this is requiring is certainly a bit of a surprise (not that i'm complaining. i would have gladly taken it even if I had been told it was 8-8 every day). am I putting too much in?

i was wondering if others are having this experience, and I was also wondering how this compares to circuit or ssc clerkships?

Having just come off a CA9 clerkship and now working in a D.Ct, I can tell you that the D.ct is way busier than even the busiest circuit, and of course far more fast paced. But I don't think your hours are unusual at all. Plenty of folks work 12 hour days and still have to work weekends at least some points during their clerkship.

I also came from CA9 to D. Ct. and had the exact same experience. The volume at the trial level is substantially higher, and the work required to stay on top of everything is certainly greater. Totally different experiences.

[Anonymous User]

I interned at a state COA for 8 months (summer then fall extern) where I was treated as a 3rd clerk and I'm now currently clerking at a fed d. ct.

They are totally different worlds. I would spend 1-2 months on one decision at the COA whereas now I'm doing 4-5 cases at a time. At the COA I'd be 830-5PM sharp (judge always left at 4:45 on the dot to catch a 5PM train) and now I'm 8AM to ??PM and often double checking things once I get home and spent Sunday nights prepping. Granted, the work is very, very different and requires very, very different approaches, but the amount of actual hours of work I put in now is easily 2x the amount at the COA.

But I've heard some COA judges (e.g., Kozinski) can really grind clerks.

[Anonymous User]

so I am in a d. court clerkship right now, and I am blown away by the pace relative to my expectations going in. when I say pace, I mean the speed at which I need to get things done in order to keep up (and of course the amount of depth that I need to go into with each of those assignments in order to give each party their due and make sure the judge is prepared). I am frequently working like 830-6:30 or 7. and oftentimes even later. I love the work and I am more than staying afloat, but the amount of hours this is requiring is certainly a bit of a surprise (not that i'm complaining. i would have gladly taken it even if I had been told it was 8-8 every day). am I putting too much in?

i was wondering if others are having this experience, and I was also wondering how this compares to circuit or ssc clerkships?

Having just come off a CA9 clerkship and now working in a D.Ct, I can tell you that the D.ct is way busier than even the busiest circuit, and of course far more fast paced. But I don't think your hours are unusual at all. Plenty of folks work 12 hour days and still have to work weekends at least some points during their clerkship.

If you did it all over, would you go for the D.Ct. clerkship post-CA9 again (assume N.D.Ca. if that matters)? Am considering doing CA9->D.Ct. myself but am not sure if it's worth foregoing another year of salary, especially given the increased workload.

[sundance95]

I interned at a state COA for 8 months (summer then fall extern) where I was treated as a 3rd clerk and I'm now currently clerking at a fed d. ct.

They are totally different worlds. I would spend 1-2 months on one decision at the COA whereas now I'm doing 4-5 cases at a time. At the COA I'd be 830-5PM sharp (judge always left at 4:45 on the dot to catch a 5PM train) and now I'm 8AM to ??PM and often double checking things once I get home and spent Sunday nights prepping. Granted, the work is very, very different and requires very, very different approaches, but the amount of actual hours of work I put in now is easily 2x the amount at the COA.

But I've heard some COA judges (e.g., Kozinski) can really grind clerks.

some 9th Circuit judges are very active in the en banc process, which can really up the workload. (en banc in the 9th is unique b/c of the size of the court; not sure if this translates to other circuits.) other judges want their clerks to write every bench memo they read rather than using shared bench memos among the panel, which also increases workload.

[ndirish2010]

As a district court clerk, I worked consistently 8:30-6:30 and it was pretty fast paced, but I never felt like I was behind. I came in like 3 or 4 times all term on weekends. For the most part, I spent a few days on a case at the MSJ stage and maybe 1-2 days at MTD stage for a draft, then it would go through whatever editing was necessary. Only for one case did I spend more than two weeks of actual drafting time. I'd imagine this is totally different at a circuit court.

[BearState]

This may seem like an obvious question, but does the pace depend on the district? Or does the number of judgeships in a district mean that workflow is pretty uniform across districts?

[hiima3L]

This may seem like an obvious question, but does the pace depend on the district? Or does the number of judgeships in a district mean that workflow is pretty uniform across districts?

Totally depends.

Some districts have dramatically heavier dockets than others. E.g., E.D. Va. vs. N.M.I.D.

[Anonymous User]

My story isn't typical, but I went from D.Ct. (major market/competitive district) to COA and am finding the appellate clerkship to be just as busy, if not sometimes busier. But I think that's specific to my judge.