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Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2016 6:25 pm
by Anonymous User
Title says it all. What GPA does one need to be competitive? T-14 non-HYS. And any other insight into the application process would be much appreciated...

Re: Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:20 am
by Anonymous User
Can anyone also speak to in addition to how competitive they are how valued they are by firms? Especially do appellate lit firms view it significantly? (no federal clerkships for this immigrant)

I feel like I'm pretty competitive with no W/E but 4.0 at P but unsure.

Re: Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:32 am
by Clearly
Anonymous User wrote:Can anyone also speak to in addition to how competitive they are how valued they are by firms? Especially do appellate lit firms view it significantly? (no federal clerkships for this immigrant)

I feel like I'm pretty competitive with no W/E but 4.0 at P but unsure.
Yeesh with those grades I'd hate to see you take a state clerkship unless it's DE and you want Corp work.

Re: Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 2:35 am
by Anonymous User
Yeah it's not high on my list. DE and Alaska/Hawaii federal are my main goals--just hadn't heard much about NY state court's reputation.

Re: Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 3:39 am
by Clearly
Anonymous User wrote:Yeah it's not high on my list. DE and Alaska/Hawaii federal are my main goals--just hadn't heard much about NY state court's reputation.
P places really well into DE courts.

Re: Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 10:23 am
by 78623089
Anonymous User wrote:Can anyone also speak to in addition to how competitive they are how valued they are by firms? Especially do appellate lit firms view it significantly?
Curious about above as well. And how competitive is ~3.6 at MVPBDNC (from NY originally).

Re: Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:23 am
by axel.foley
78623089 wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:Can anyone also speak to in addition to how competitive they are how valued they are by firms? Especially do appellate lit firms view it significantly?
Curious about above as well. And how competitive is ~3.6 at MVPBDNC (from NY originally).
Jesus dude just say the school. Obviously results will vary the further you go down that list, and Cornell for example is different from Northwestern b/c it's actually in NY.

Re: Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:32 am
by Anonymous User
Re value of state Supreme Court clerking:

Friend of mine at S&C/Cravath/DPW et al was in the same position and asked 8 partners what they thought about clerking at the SC in NY/NJ/CA et al. 4/8 told him not to bother, 4/8 told him it'll be worth it. I don't know if firms as an entity have an opinion one way or the other. It seems like each partner would have her own opinion.

I think it would be valuable for you as a lawyer, though.

Re: Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 11:36 am
by Anonymous User
Anonymous User wrote:Re value of state Supreme Court clerking:

Friend of mine at S&C/Cravath/DPW et al was in the same position and asked 8 partners what they thought about clerking at the SC in NY/NJ/CA et al. 4/8 told him not to bother, 4/8 told him it'll be worth it. I don't know if firms as an entity have an opinion one way or the other. It seems like each partner would have her own opinion.

I think it would be valuable for you as a lawyer, though.
That's sort of the sense I've got as well from people I've asked. I'm actually working at a state appellate court this summer and agree I can't imagine clerking in an environment like this wouldn't drastically improve my writing etc.

(foreign anon)

Re: Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2016 12:06 pm
by Anonymous User
In my opinion it really seems to depend on the COA Judge and while GPA & School Prestige is considered, I feel like "fit" lands you the job. I've known 4 COA clerks and they were well, well outside the T-14. But, I think only one went to school outside the state. A couple had a low Fed (district or magistrate) clerkship the year prior to clerking.

Re: Grades for NY Court of Appeals?

Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2016 7:45 pm
by Anonymous User
Former COA clerk and it depends. Law clerks are typically decently high grades at T14 or the top of local schools, although its been some time since I was clerking there and there has been a lot of judge turnover, plus some judges tend to keep 2 or 3 career clerks rather than term clerks. So the number of spots is very limited.

There are also clerks on "Central Staff" who are the equivalent of court attorneys in federal court and primarily handle the motions for leave to appeal, these clerks are usually from NY schools. There are about 15 or so of them.

In terms of whether it is valued by biglaw firms, IME yes, or at least the alums I know are at highly regarded firms.
It also makes you an extremely good writer and a sharp legal thinker. It's a significant workload, though.