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Alum applicant currently practicing and applying for district court clerkships. Does anyone know how much of a boost (if any) a publication would provide to an application? There's a topic that I think I can write a decent piece on, but not sure if it would be the extra effort if it's something that doesn't move the needle. FWIW, I've also published a piece while in law school.

It's going to be entirely judge-dependent. For judges who care, I'd say it'd give you a small-to-medium boost (depending on the judge, the topic of the publication, and the placement of the publication). But if you haven't ever written a law review article, it's an enormous effort. On a per-hour basis, it's probably one of the most negligible things that you could do to help your application.

Anonymous User wrote:It's going to be entirely judge-dependent. For judges who care, I'd say it'd give you a small-to-medium boost (depending on the judge, the topic of the publication, and the placement of the publication). But if you haven't ever written a law review article, it's an enormous effort. On a per-hour basis, it's probably one of the most negligible things that you could do to help your application.

Makes sense, thanks for the response.

My judge (DJ) could not care less. It would be a complete waste of time if you were to apply here.

Anonymous User wrote:On a per-hour basis, it's probably one of the most negligible things that you could do to help your application.

Basically agree with this, and I think it's particularly true if you already published a piece in law school. Your resume already signals 'published author' somewhere - the difference between zero and one publication is bigger than the difference between one and two (at least in my experience).

OP here. Thanks for the helpful responses! It's a topic of personal interest, so I'll probably write on my own time, but won't sweat it for upcoming applications.

Would it change anyone's calculus if the applicant was not on any journal in law school?

In my chambers, a publication might be a tie-breaker with another good candidate who did not publish anything. A second publication would barely get noticed.