Telling people an unpaid postgrad internship is a fed clerkship Forum

[rpupkin]

Twist: OP did an even shittier job than the postgrad intern and the judge now wants any mention of a clerkship removed from OP's firm bio.

[pancakes3]

The clerk/intern distinction is pretty important. There are substantially different hiring criteria between the two - not just based on qualification (anti-nepotism provisions come to mind).

[jchiles]

Every judge I've talked to used the term "clerk" to refer from people ranging from high school interns to career clerks so i don't think judges are getting too hung up on this stuff.

That's not been my experience at all.

Really this all boils down to what the judge thinks the title was. If the judge thought it was an unpaid clerkship, it was. If the judge thought it was something else, it was. If the judge doesn't care what the guy called it, it's all good. If the judge does care, that's a problem (not because you have to kowtow to the almighty judge, it just seems like a bad career move when/if you're trying to trade on that particular position).

Also, 0Ls really shouldn't be weighing in on this. (That's not directed at you, jchiles - others in this thread.)

Yeah I figured this wasn't universal, and it may be that the judges I know just use the term "clerk" generically in conversation. I'm guessing the differences between these titles mean more to law students/young attorneys than they do to the the judge but obviously the actual title of your position is what you put on the resume.

[los blancos]

Sounds like semantics to me. What's the difference between a post-grad judicial internship and a clerkship? The internship is unpaid and the clerkship is paid? It seems you had similar responsibilities, he was just dumb enough to do it for free.

No, there are definitely chambers where judges hire an additional "pro bono" elbow clerk who are basically exactly like any other clerk in chambers (in role/responsibility/etc) except they don't get paid. Those people are absolutely "judicial clerks" and there's really no reason anyone needs to know they weren't paid. Doesn't sound like this person had those responsibilities:

I had him do extra reviews of things, some make work, and super short and simple orders that no one could screw up.

...

That wasn't his title. He knows he was an extern. He applied through his school's externship program. He was called an extern by everyone.

I've never heard of a chambers where elbow clerks supervise other elbow clerks. Admittedly though, I've also never heard of judges hiring JDs to do intern/extern type work either. But if the judge hired/called this person an extern, they're definitely playing with fire with the description in the OP. Like that's a pretty blatant rule 7.1 violation to me. Not that I care.