CAAF Clerkship Perception to Employers Forum

[TLSCLB]

I am currently a rising 3L finishing my summer clerkship with a biglaw firm in Texas. I applied to maybe 20 or so district court clerkships in the spring semester last year (no luck...yet), but was not yet sure that I was going to be doing litigation post-graduation. Now that that looks almost certain to be the case, I plan to apply to several more.

The judicial clerkship office at my school reached out to me today to let me know that the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces is looking for applicants and that they think I'd be a great fit. Briefly researching the court, it seems like it'd be a great clerkship, especially since national security law is a huge interest of mine, and an area I hope to be able to practice in several years down the line (hopefully in DC).

However, in the short term, I want to know how this clerkship would be perceived by biglaw employers before jumping in head-first. I have read that since this court is more specialized than a district court, firms are unlikely to value it as much. Is this true? Would a firm not value it so much as to deny a bonus, and possibly be unhappy with me pursuing the opportunity? I realize some of these questions can only be answered by the employer, but I'd like to get as much info as possible before having that conversation, if it needs to happen.

[Anonymous User]

I was thinking about applying to the CAAF last year based on the same reasons that you are. I was told by advisors and my school's clerkship office that it is only really useful if you want to do military law (JAG) because of the very specialized nature of the material. Its only criminal appeals (if I remember correctly), so doesnt translate well to civil litigation which is what most biglaw is. The 'national security' aspect isnt what most people think of when they think military national security litigation (think GITMO), because that all goes through either DDC/CADC or the FISC.

With that said, I talked to a few people who clerked there and liked it. The case load wasnt overwhelming. It wouldnt be a bad gig, but doesnt sound like it will put you where you want.

[Anonymous User]

This is completely anecdotal, but I've seen a couple of folks come out of the CAAF and work for a couple of the better biglaw firms in DC. Both were also able to subsequently trade up to very competitive clerkships (think 2/9/DC or D.D.C.). My impression is that it's a well-regarded clerkship in DC. I don't know how well it travels though.

[TLSCLB]

This is completely anecdotal, but I've seen a couple of folks come out of the CAAF and work for a couple of the better biglaw firms in DC. Both were also able to subsequently trade up to very competitive clerkships (think 2/9/DC or D.D.C.). My impression is that it's a well-regarded clerkship in DC. I don't know how well it travels though.

Well that's good to hear. I reached out to one of my school's NSL professors to get his thoughts on it as well.

First Anon, if you don't mind me asking, did you end up clerking elsewhere or going straight to firm work (or another path)?

[Anonymous User]

This is completely anecdotal, but I've seen a couple of folks come out of the CAAF and work for a couple of the better biglaw firms in DC. Both were also able to subsequently trade up to very competitive clerkships (think 2/9/DC or D.D.C.). My impression is that it's a well-regarded clerkship in DC. I don't know how well it travels though.

Well that's good to hear. I reached out to one of my school's NSL professors to get his thoughts on it as well.

First Anon, if you don't mind me asking, did you end up clerking elsewhere or going straight to firm work (or another path)?

First anon here. I am doing a district court clerkship starting in a couple weeks. I interviewed for a couple COA positions but didnt manage to land one. Happy to talk more via PM if you want.

[TLSCLB]

This is completely anecdotal, but I've seen a couple of folks come out of the CAAF and work for a couple of the better biglaw firms in DC. Both were also able to subsequently trade up to very competitive clerkships (think 2/9/DC or D.D.C.). My impression is that it's a well-regarded clerkship in DC. I don't know how well it travels though.

Well that's good to hear. I reached out to one of my school's NSL professors to get his thoughts on it as well.

First Anon, if you don't mind me asking, did you end up clerking elsewhere or going straight to firm work (or another path)?

First anon here. I am doing a district court clerkship starting in a couple weeks. I interviewed for a couple COA positions but didnt manage to land one. Happy to talk more via PM if you want.

Ya, let's do that, more advice/insight on navigating this crazy process is always helpful I think. (Accidental Anon)

[hiima3L]

I once met one of the judges on the court without knowing it - wife of family friend. He was incredibly nice.

But yeah it is 100% criminal, so if you want to do civil, doesn't seem to make much sense to go there.

[Fed_Atty]

Former Navy JAG with some exposure arguing cases at CAAF. A couple notes:

1. In the military justice system there are potentially 3 levels of Appellate Review. First, each service has its own 1st level court of appeals. For the Navy we had the Navy Marine Corps Court of Appeals (NMCCA). The other services have something similar. These courts are made up entirely of uniformed Judge Advocates. In some cases the Judges are former trial judges, but not always. For many military justice cases, there is an automatic appellate review of cases, largely depending on the seriousness of the punishment adjudged.

2. CAAF is the second level appellate court. It hears cases that have already been decided by the service specific appellate courts. It is a powerful court in the sense that if they make a holding in an Army case, for example, it is binding on all other services. Compare this to the service specific Appellate courts where holdings are only binding on that particular service.

3. Keep in mind that you will be dealing entirely with Military Justice type cases, which will involve military criminal law. Military Justice is markedly different than "civilian" criminal law. Likely you may work on cases that have almost no similarity to the rest of the body of criminal law. For example, Unlawful Command Influence. An example is that the President made remarks along the lines of "All those guilty of sexual assault should be dishonorably discharged from the military". This has been interpreted as unlawful in certain incidences. (It is a lot more complicated than my brief scenario). You could spend a decent part of your time working a military specific issue that may be hard to sell to other employers other than the generic litigation experience you gained.

4. CAAF is an Article I, not an Article III court. That is not per se a bad thing, but just another area where it is different.

I tend to think that it would be superb experience for someone looking to go JAG (in fact a few of the JAGS I went to Justice School with had served as clerks on CAAF), but don't see it transferring all that well in other areas.

If you want to get an idea of the types of issues CAAF deals with, I would recommend checking out http://www.caaflog.com/