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I am hearing scuttlebutt from some of my contacts at other similarly-ranked schools (I'm at one of HYS) that judges are interviewing candidates/potentially soliciting applications from candidates prior to 1L fall grades coming out. Naturally, this sounds completely insane to me, and nothing in my own clerkship application experience suggested that this is occurring.

Just putting feelers out here—is this anything that people have heard of?

Disclaimer - I know nothing from personal experience, but lore has it that this was the kind of thing that was happening before the hiring plan was put into place, and one of the reasons for instituting the plan. So I have no idea if it's happening now but I believe it has happened in the past.

There are people at HYS with clerkships they got from feeder judges after 1L Fall grades. But I'm not sure how a judge would know who to interview before having at least one semester's-worth of grades.

Legal ability is basically evident from birth, so I'm guessing preschool transcripts.

No clue if this is happening. Just came in to unhelpfully say that if it is happening, that's insane.

It's almost like all the babble about "merit" was a lie

Anonymous User wrote:I am hearing scuttlebutt from some of my contacts at other similarly-ranked schools (I'm at one of HYS) that judges are interviewing candidates/potentially soliciting applications from candidates prior to 1L fall grades coming out. Naturally, this sounds completely insane to me, and nothing in my own clerkship application experience suggested that this is occurring.

Just putting feelers out here—is this anything that people have heard of?

I haven't heard anything at H, and I assume this is the kind of thing that would spread pretty fast here if someone was claiming that they already applied/interviewed with a feeder a month before first semester 1l finals.

There are several 2Ls at S that got clerkships with 1L Fall/Winter quarter grades (they had a high % of Hs and 1+ book prizes each). I haven't heard of any who got clerkships without 1L fall grades.

Anonymous User wrote:There are people at HYS with clerkships they got from feeder judges after 1L Fall grades. But I'm not sure how a judge would know who to interview before having at least one semester's-worth of grades.

At YLS fall grades would be irrelevant since unlike other schools there is no distinguishing between students on a transcript until May. Professor calls are how students are landing early interviews. Mere mortals must wait to actually make an impression on important faculty, but there will always be students with well connected family or other resources that can start the process immediately with faculty support.

zaetoroftheprotoss wrote:There are several 2Ls at S that got clerkships with 1L Fall/Winter quarter grades (they had a high % of Hs and 1+ book prizes each). I haven't heard of any who got clerkships without 1L fall grades.

Only 1+ BP each? So non-feeders are hiring this early out? My god, times have changed.

ArtistOfManliness wrote:

zaetoroftheprotoss wrote:There are several 2Ls at S that got clerkships with 1L Fall/Winter quarter grades (they had a high % of Hs and 1+ book prizes each). I haven't heard of any who got clerkships without 1L fall grades.

Only 1+ BP each? So non-feeders are hiring this early out? My god, times have changed.

At S. I think these were all late spring quarter/early summer hires. Earliest I've heard was June. So no spring grades, but still ~8 grades between fall and winter. Not sure on # of prizes, but afaik only feeders were moving before spring grades were out and S gets out later than other schools.

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Anonymous User wrote:

ArtistOfManliness wrote:

zaetoroftheprotoss wrote:There are several 2Ls at S that got clerkships with 1L Fall/Winter quarter grades (they had a high % of Hs and 1+ book prizes each). I haven't heard of any who got clerkships without 1L fall grades.

Only 1+ BP each? So non-feeders are hiring this early out? My god, times have changed.

At S. I think these were all late spring quarter/early summer hires. Earliest I've heard was June. So no spring grades, but still ~8 grades between fall and winter. Not sure on # of prizes, but afaik only feeders were moving before spring grades were out and S gets out later than other schools.

The point AoM is making is that a feeder would not usually hire someone with "only" one book prize so if people with one book prize are getting hired it implies that non-feeders are hiring. But it sounds like your point was more that feeders are hiring pre-spring grades, not that people with one book prize are getting hired.

More on topic: I hope no one is getting hired or interviewed without grades. For all their faults, at least grades are blind and everyone knows has a shot of doing well. Interviewing without grades means interviewing based on connections or in-class gunning, neither of which is a good basis...