NJ State Clerkships Forum

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to the competitiveness? Specifically in terms of GPA and whether being a native NJ resident plays in your favor at all?

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone speak to the competitiveness? Specifically in terms of GPA and whether being a native NJ resident plays in your favor at all?

A lot depends on school.

[JerryLundegard]

Can anyone speak to the competitiveness? Specifically in terms of GPA and whether being a native NJ resident plays in your favor at all?

A lot depends on school.

Could you elaborate?

[latty]

What level are you inquiring about? NJ resident most definitely helps. As do connections to judges.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Can anyone speak to the competitiveness? Specifically in terms of GPA and whether being a native NJ resident plays in your favor at all?

A lot depends on school.

Could you elaborate?

Well, with clerkships generally, what GPA you need to be competitive depends on what school you attend - judges usually will go deeper in the class for more highly-ranked schools. (And it's really class rank rather than GPA.) My impression is that being a local helps and I think there are a lot of Rutgers/Seton Hall grads in these clerkships, but that's just an impression.

[latty]

A huge percentage of the clerks are from Jersey schools. I would estimate above 50%. There are many judges who attended the local schools, and will only interview from those schools. Basically, at the local schools you can realistically get a clerkship if you are about top 50%, and you still have a shot at one below that. If you are from an out of state school, you would need to be either from a highly ranked school, or highly ranked wherever you are to have a realistic shot.
Something to bear in mind in regard to the trial level clerkships, it seems that civil > criminal> family, in terms of competitiveness.

[hiima3L]

A huge percentage of the clerks are from Jersey schools. I would estimate above 50%. There are many judges who attended the local schools, and will only interview from those schools. Basically, at the local schools you can realistically get a clerkship if you are about top 50%, and you still have a shot at one below that. If you are from an out of state school, you would need to be either from a highly ranked school, or highly ranked wherever you are to have a realistic shot.
Something to bear in mind in regard to the trial level clerkships, it seems that civil > criminal> family, in terms of competitiveness.

I'm fairly sure this is correct. My friend went to Rutgers and she said she could name over a dozen classmates doing NJ trial court clerkships. A co-worker, who went to Seton Hall, also clerked at one.

[Anonymous User]

Interesting. I have strong ties to NJ and I've worked for a few attorneys there (who I plan on reaching out to) but I'm at Cardozo so I'm wondering if by out of state even NYC is one strike against you.

[miller7353]

I'm a Fordham student living in NJ, looking for an NJ judge to intern for so my commute isn't ridiculous during the summer. Any suggestions on where to look online for judges with openings?

Also, for 1L summer, does it matter what type of judge you intern for? Obviously the higher courts would be ideal, but the deadline is too far gone by now (I've been taking the "wait until after finals" thing a little too seriously). Are trial level state or municipal judges a good option or should I just look for a small firm instead?

I've been talking to a Career Planner at school who has basically been giving me the ever unhelpful advice of "just find something having to do with law and you'll be fine"...

[nick417]

I'm a Fordham student living in NJ, looking for an NJ judge to intern for so my commute isn't ridiculous during the summer. Any suggestions on where to look online for judges with openings?

Also, for 1L summer, does it matter what type of judge you intern for? Obviously the higher courts would be ideal, but the deadline is too far gone by now (I've been taking the "wait until after finals" thing a little too seriously). Are trial level state or municipal judges a good option or should I just look for a small firm instead?

I've been talking to a Career Planner at school who has basically been giving me the ever unhelpful advice of "just find something having to do with law and you'll be fine"...

I am Rutgers-Camden, so I know what the SJ judges have been doing. Down here, they accept applications well into March. Some even have openings as late as May. My friend last year didn't start applying to NJ state judges until mid-February and landed an appellate level clerkship. Again, I don't know what the Judges are doing in North Jersey, but in SJ, your applications would not be late.

[Manali]

I am interested in state trial court (family, juvenile, criminal, etc.) clerkship in NJ, specifically south Jersey. What kind of rank do you need if you come from a Philly TT? Is journal a must?

[toiletgecko]

I'm currently a clerk in NJ. For trial clerks, a top 50% ranking should do the trick, even without journal. It does depend on the court, though; equity clerkships are more competitive than others, and civil clerkships seem to be pretty competitive as well. If you're in Philly, there should be some resources at your law school's OCS on NJ Clerkships. My one piece of advice would be to mail applications directly to the judge instead of using the online email system; most judges don't look at it.

[Anonymous User]

Posted elsewhere before I saw this thread -

Can anyone speak to the exit options from a trial court clerkship?