Do i have a shot at a district court clerkship? Forum

[Anonymous User]

What are my chances for a district court clerkship? No location preference but would prefer anywhere in CA or TX if possible. Worth applying?

my stats:
graduated a little outside top third at T20 this past may.
Currently 1st year associate at V25 in DC
former EIC of secondary, no LR
published an article in HYS secondary

notable con stats:
crap undergrad grades at top 3 public school. (3.2, but to be fair, my undergrad major curved at 2.66 lol)
no real strong connections with professors. A few adjuncts maybe but nobody awesome.

And if not worth applying, what would be the best ways to become a stronger candidate?

[Anonymous User]

your odds aren't great, especially for CA and TX. if you're ok with any district, just send applications as widely as you can and cross your fingers.

your best bet is down the road. the strategy would be: (1) apply to start sometime after 2-3 years after beginning as an associate; and (2) try to seek out, work with, and wildly impress somebody at your firm with strong connections to a judge.

[Anonymous User]

your odds aren't great, especially for CA and TX. if you're ok with any district, just send applications as widely as you can and cross your fingers.

your best bet is down the road. the strategy would be: (1) apply to start sometime after 2-3 years after beginning as an associate; and (2) try to seek out, work with, and wildly impress somebody at your firm with strong connections to a judge.

OP here. Thanks, good advice. Don't have a huge problem with waiting.

[Anonymous User]

I am currently a D. Ct. clerk who started after working at a mid-big law firm for two years. My law school stats were fairly similar to yours, (slightly better grades, slightly lower ranked school, and I did not have any journal/publishing experience). I applied to 70+ judges and got three requests for interviews pretty quickly, but only actually did one interview because I received/accepted the offer from that interview the next day(and then withdrew the rest of my apps, so I never got any more interviews).

The above advice about applying broadly for a future spot is credited. If you are looking for a clerkship that would start in September of 2017, now is a fantastic time to get your LORs in a row and start checking Oscar for openings (adjust your settings so that you get emails with new openings every day).

I am sure that some judges never gave my application more than 2 seconds worth of attention before throwing in the trash, but some judges really like candidates with work experience. Apply everywhere..... if you hustle I think it's a realistic goal.

Edit - but be advised that many judges will not even ask for applications until late winter/early spring, and others will wait for summer/fall and beyond.

[Anonymous User]

I'm more optimistic than anon 1. Solid resume, decent grades, and temporal/geographic flexibility puts you in a decent position. There's certianly more you can do than applying broadly (tho you should definitely do that too) start getting to know former clerks at your firm well and maybe express your interest in clerking down the road. Also reach out to former clerks from your school and chat w them. At least some will probably be willing to push your app in front of their judge when you apply

[Anonymous User]

I am currently a D. Ct. clerk who started after working at a mid-big law firm for two years. My law school stats were fairly similar to yours, (slightly better grades, slightly lower ranked school, and I did not have any journal/publishing experience). I applied to 70+ judges and got three requests for interviews pretty quickly, but only actually did one interview because I received/accepted the offer from that interview the next day(and then withdrew the rest of my apps, so I never got any more interviews).

The above advice about applying broadly for a future spot is credited. If you are looking for a clerkship that would start in September of 2017, now is a fantastic time to get your LORs in a row and start checking Oscar for openings (adjust your settings so that you get emails with new openings every day).

I am sure that some judges never gave my application more than 2 seconds worth of attention before throwing in the trash, but some judges really like candidates with work experience. Apply everywhere..... if you hustle I think it's a realistic goal.

Edit - but be advised that many judges will not even ask for applications until late winter/early spring, and others will wait for summer/fall and beyond.

Thanks so much. LORs is definitely among my weak points as I didn't make many strong connections with professors during my 3 years. Will definitely start brainstorming possibilities on this front.

I will defintiely be applying broadly as well.

I'm more optimistic than anon 1. Solid resume, decent grades, and temporal/geographic flexibility puts you in a decent position. There's certianly more you can do than applying broadly (tho you should definitely do that too) start getting to know former clerks at your firm well and maybe express your interest in clerking down the road. Also reach out to former clerks from your school and chat w them. At least some will probably be willing to push your app in front of their judge when you apply

Good idea regarding former and current clerks. I'll definitely do that. Only thing is that my firm tends to hire from schools that are ranked higher than mine , and many of the clerks are HYSCC and thus I always think their judges are just looking for other HYSCC kids. But youre right, definitely doesnt hurt to reach out and see.

[timmyd]

Clerkship hiring is so idiosyncratic. Some judges value experience and ties over school and grades. Some judges look at class rank exclusively, as opposed to school. Really depends. I would say you have a shot if you apply broadly. You might have to live somewhere random for a year, but the experience, at least in my view, is unparalleled. As a current clerk at this level, I would say writing ability trumps everything else. Seize every opportunity you can to demonstrate an aptitude for legal writing.

[Anonymous User]

Clerkship hiring is so idiosyncratic. Some judges value experience and ties over school and grades. Some judges look at class rank exclusively, as opposed to school. Really depends. I would say you have a shot if you apply broadly. You might have to live somewhere random for a year, but the experience, at least in my view, is unparalleled. As a current clerk at this level, I would say writing ability trumps everything else. Seize every opportunity you can to demonstrate an aptitude for legal writing.

Agreed. Especially for openings on short notice. I've gotten several interviews with not particularly impressive credentials (median-ish from a T14, regional firm for a year, prior state ct clerkship).

[timmyd]

Clerkship hiring is so idiosyncratic. Some judges value experience and ties over school and grades. Some judges look at class rank exclusively, as opposed to school. Really depends. I would say you have a shot if you apply broadly. You might have to live somewhere random for a year, but the experience, at least in my view, is unparalleled. As a current clerk at this level, I would say writing ability trumps everything else. Seize every opportunity you can to demonstrate an aptitude for legal writing.

Agreed. Especially for openings on short notice. I've gotten several interviews with not particularly impressive credentials (median-ish from a T14, regional firm for a year, prior state ct clerkship).

The thing is, those credentials, especially the clerkship, are good for what clerks actually do--at least in my chambers. Sure,some judges like to take a mentoring role and develop a good clerk from the ground up. But for many judges, the value of previous experience trumps stellar law school grades. Now that I've actually been a clerk for a bit over a month, I can understand why this would be the case.

[Anonymous User]

Clerkship hiring is so idiosyncratic. Some judges value experience and ties over school and grades. Some judges look at class rank exclusively, as opposed to school. Really depends. I would say you have a shot if you apply broadly. You might have to live somewhere random for a year, but the experience, at least in my view, is unparalleled. As a current clerk at this level, I would say writing ability trumps everything else. Seize every opportunity you can to demonstrate an aptitude for legal writing.

Agreed. Especially for openings on short notice. I've gotten several interviews with not particularly impressive credentials (median-ish from a T14, regional firm for a year, prior state ct clerkship).

The thing is, those credentials, especially the clerkship, are good for what clerks actually do--at least in my chambers. Sure,some judges like to take a mentoring role and develop a good clerk from the ground up. But for many judges, the value of previous experience trumps stellar law school grades. Now that I've actually been a clerk for a bit over a month, I can understand why this would be the case.

OP here. Very helpful advice. Thanks. It's always hard to demonstrate writing capabilities because it feels pretty subjective at times but I'll definitely keep an eye out for ways to demonstrate aptitutde.