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I'm sure this has been covered at some point but I can't seem to find it. What should be expected at a post-clerkship BigLaw callback? Will it be substantive? I can picture substantive questions would be difficult to answer under the ethics code but I am sure I can work around that.

Expect questions like:

what did you do during your clerkship?
what lessons/insights did you learn from your clerkship?
what was your relationship with your judge like?
if we call your judge, what would s/he say about you?
tell us about a case you're working on (or a case you found fascinating).

I recently went through a handful of firm interviews for post-clerkship positions. They all asked about how chambers operates (i.e., what I did as a clerk) and what kind of cases I saw. Nothing that substantive beyond "Have you worked on X kind of case?" (The X being a subject area relevant to the position.)

Jchance wrote:Expect questions like:
tell us about a case you're working on (or a case you found fascinating).

Do interviewers actually ask this? Answering seems ethically questionable to say the least

wwwcol wrote:

Jchance wrote:Expect questions like:
tell us about a case you're working on (or a case you found fascinating).

Do interviewers actually ask this? Answering seems ethically questionable to say the least

Yes, and obviously to the extent you can answer the question. A lot of information is public record and those looking to hire clerks know exactly what clerks do on a day-to-day basis.

Jchance wrote:

wwwcol wrote:

Jchance wrote:Expect questions like:
tell us about a case you're working on (or a case you found fascinating).

Do interviewers actually ask this? Answering seems ethically questionable to say the least

Yes, and obviously to the extent you can answer the question. A lot of information is public record and those looking to hire clerks know exactly what clerks do on a day-to-day basis.

Yeah this. You obviously can't say "I'm working on an opinion right now that's about to rule against X lol!"
But you can probably say "We have a case right now that I'm assigned to and it's about x y z and I find that really interesting."
Or some bs like that.

But yeah they'll almost universally ask some basic questions about your clerkship but nothing terribly substantive. If the person interviewing you also clerked or if their spouse is a judge or whatever they're pretty interested in learning how other chambers operate.

Bump. What types of questions drop off from OCI? Also, what types of questions should we be asking partners?

I’ve gone on several post-clerkship interviews, and been surprised by how little people discuss my clerkships themselves. They always ask something like, “are you enjoying clerking for judge X” or “how did you like clerking for judge Y,” but nothing substantive beyond that.

Many more questions focused on the theme of, “why come here and not return to your summer/pre-clerkship firm(s)?” So that’s something to be prepared for that goes a little beyond “why do you want to work here,” because you have to tactfully distinguish what you want about the interviewer’s firm that wasn’t offered where you summered, without appearing negative about anyone.

Anonymous User wrote:Bump. What types of questions drop off from OCI? Also, what types of questions should we be asking partners?

In terms of questions that “drop off” from OCI, I would note: (1) its unlikely you’ll be asked about your pre-law experience, whereas that featured heavily in OCI interviews, and you’ll be asked more comprehensive questions about law school as a whole; and (2) unlike OCI interviews where you can still sort of rove and express interest in any area, post-clerkship you should be able to articulate some specific practice areas of interest and ground them in your experience.

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