Applying 1L Summer
Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2016 11:52 pm
I had very good grades first semester at CCN, so I'm looking at applying for circuit clerkships this summer if my grades go well second semester. Does anyone who applied 1L summer have any advice, particularly in the realm of writing sample, recommenders, and judge selection?
I'm not super in love with my brief, so I'd rather use my open memo as a writing sample - would this look too amateur? Would it be weird to have a recommendation from my legal writing instructor (not a full-time faculty member, but did a circuit clerkship fairly recently and might have some connections - I'm confident he would write me a very good rec)? Obviously I don't have a ton of options for recommenders at this point, and the clerkship office suggested that I might want to get letters now from first semester profs so I can apply earlier, rather than waiting for letters from second-semester profs after grades.
The clerkship office suggested that I may want to be selective in who I apply to right off the bat to avoid the issue of getting grabbed by a judge early when I may have a shot at DC Circuit or other feeders. From my maybe naive view, it seems like DC Circuit is primarily hiring from HYS anyway, so I'm questioning whether this is a great strategy. The thought of clerking for a feeder is somewhat appealing to me, but I mostly just want to get a clerkship, period, so I obviously don't want to get in a situation where I wait and then don't get anything - not sure how likely this is.
Sorry if this has been covered in other threads, but I try to keep up with what's going on here and I don't remember seeing a lot of stuff tailored to 1L summer specifically.
I'm not super in love with my brief, so I'd rather use my open memo as a writing sample - would this look too amateur? Would it be weird to have a recommendation from my legal writing instructor (not a full-time faculty member, but did a circuit clerkship fairly recently and might have some connections - I'm confident he would write me a very good rec)? Obviously I don't have a ton of options for recommenders at this point, and the clerkship office suggested that I might want to get letters now from first semester profs so I can apply earlier, rather than waiting for letters from second-semester profs after grades.
The clerkship office suggested that I may want to be selective in who I apply to right off the bat to avoid the issue of getting grabbed by a judge early when I may have a shot at DC Circuit or other feeders. From my maybe naive view, it seems like DC Circuit is primarily hiring from HYS anyway, so I'm questioning whether this is a great strategy. The thought of clerking for a feeder is somewhat appealing to me, but I mostly just want to get a clerkship, period, so I obviously don't want to get in a situation where I wait and then don't get anything - not sure how likely this is.
Sorry if this has been covered in other threads, but I try to keep up with what's going on here and I don't remember seeing a lot of stuff tailored to 1L summer specifically.