Help with selecting requested second writing sample Forum

[Anonymous User]

So a judge wants to see a second writing sample. I have not interviewed yet. I feel that this writing sample will likely determine whether I get an interview.

I’m experienced. I clerked out of school, practiced for a few years, and am now clerking again for a mag judge (interview is for dc or app judge). My current sample is a reply brief I wrote in private practice. I’m wondering if I should lean towards another brief or see if I can use an order from my current clerkship? I think I’m writing better than ever now. But I’m not sure I can secure permission for using an order. I’m also not sure how using an order looks when it’s obvioauly not my name on the signature block.

Excuse my messiness. Typing quickly.

[Anonymous User]

So a judge wants to see a second writing sample. I have not interviewed yet. I feel that this writing sample will likely determine whether I get an interview.

I’m experienced. I clerked out of school, practiced for a few years, and am now clerking again for a mag judge (interview is for dc or app judge). My current sample is a reply brief I wrote in private practice. I’m wondering if I should lean towards another brief or see if I can use an order from my current clerkship? I think I’m writing better than ever now. But I’m not sure I can secure permission for using an order. I’m also not sure how using an order looks when it’s obvioauly not my name on the signature block.

Excuse my messiness. Typing quickly.

When I applied for my second clerkship, I converted an order that I had written during my first clerkship into a bench memo. It's fairly easy to do -- you just change the definitive statements (e.g., "the court therefore denies . . .") to personal recommendations (e.g., "I therefore recommend denying . . . "). I also changed some of the facts and the names of the parties to preserve confidentiality. I think this is a common way to prepare writing samples drawn from clerkships, and it's often easier to convince your judge to let you do this as opposed to using an actual order. And it gives you some freedom to revise the writing sample -- the judge reviewing your sample isn't going to care about the facts (just your writing ability), so you can feel free to change the facts in a way that makes your argument stronger/clearer.

[Anonymous User]

Op here. Thanks. I’ll likely look into turning an order into a memo for a future sample. I went ahead and submitted a second sample from private practice—an opposition brief at the trial level. Havnt heard back since submitting it so probably something about my writing the judge just doesn’t like. Oh well.