Magistrate clerkships cd ca Forum

[Anonymous User]

How competitive are magistrate clerkships in the CD CA (Los Angeles), and what are clerks doing following the clerkship?

[Anonymous User]

Former district Court clerk here who knows some MJ clerks.

Up front, clerking for a magistrate judge in the district you want to work in is a great opportunity. It gives you a potential career mentor and connections into the local law community (both firms and local AUSAs office). Also, if the magistrate judge has been around for a while, their former clerks can help as well. Some MJ clerks use it as a stepping stone to a federal district court clerkship; state attorney general's office (federal litigation unit); medium size firms and sometimes "biglaw"; and, once in a while, the local AUSA's office. It definitely opens doors, but not to the extent a federal district court clerkship might.

When it comes to "prestige," CDCA is pretty up there right below SDNY/DDC. I say it's comparable to NDIL/EDNY/NDCA. You're competing with a bunch of local law schools and other law students who want to practice law in sunny Los Angeles or Orange County. Regardless of your law school rank/GPA, I say you should apply. The only guaranteed way to not get the clerkship is to not apply -- and c'mon a random comment from an anonymous person on TLS shouldn't influence you on whether or not you apply. When it comes to GPA, I think top-third at either a local school or T40 gives you a decent chance. Thoroughly research the magistrate judge and try to identify common factors (e.g., law school, bar associations, affinity groups, military, specific interests) and highlight those factors on your cover letter. Personally, I'm a huge fan of detailed cover letters (that are interesting and make it obvious the applicant has done their research and is legitimately excited about the opportunity). Lastly, most of the CDCA MJ clerks I ran into had attended the local law schools (UCLA, UCI, USC, Loyola, and Pepperdine).

Some unsolicited advice if you get an interview: try impressing the magistrate and his/her clerks on the reality of what they do versus a district court judge. Magistrates generally rule on non-dispositive motions (e.g, discovery motions); monitor the status of referred cases; issue a report and recommendation for all disposition motives to a district judge; and -- if both parties consent -- have full authority to assume the role of a district court judge and make case-dispositive rulings and preside over a trial. In fact, I think CDCA has a pilot program where magistrates are entered into a pool to preside over certain civil cases, along with the rest of the district court judges, and the parties can consent to that magistrate seeing the civil case through. Also, CDCA has a pilot IP program, so having an IP background would definitely help as well. Depends on the judge and background on whether parties actually consent, so regardless you're going to be doing a lot of discovery related issues (that's a huge part of civil litigation) and a bunch of habeas and social security appeals.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks. I have an interview and am trying to decide whether to go forward. I clerked at the district level and am doing a magistrate clerkship in another district now.

I don’t really have a desire to practice in LA, but I do have a lot of friends and family the area and wouldn’t mind living there a bit. Just don’t know if the clerkship really does much for me at this point.

[Anonymous User]

Same anon at 11:55pm.

I agree with you: if you have no desire to practice in SoCal and already have a District Court clerkship and a Magistrate Clerkship on your resume, I do not see how a follow-on magistrate clerkship (unless it's a Circuit) is going to help you professionally (beyond just one more mentor and network of fellow clerks). But it depends on entirely what you want to do. I cannot see if hurting you if you want to go Public Interest, Government, or Academia, but having a third clerkship in a state you don't end up practicing in may raise some questions from law firms who unfairly believe you were just putting off "law firm life" and wanted to live in a cool place (I totally agree with that, but a firm in say, Cleveland, may not be thrilled and afraid you're just going to pick up and leave any time). But, living in SoCal is great so I hope you do end up interviewing and consider practicing in the area long term. Good luck!

[nixy]

If you already have a district court clerkship and a different magistrate clerkship I think the only reason to do another magistrate clerkship would be to transition to a new market. And that would be because it would be a year in the market to get to know people, make connections, and find something new, rather than the experience of the clerkship per se. I guess my question is what you want to get out of the clerkship? Do you have a permanent job or are you trying to get a better/new one? Like if you currently don’t have a job/have a crappy job it could make sense to do another clerkship to provide more time to get a (better) job, but if you’re currently employed and the goal is to change positions I’m not sure that going to LA to do a mag clerkship is the best way to do it (since you don’t sound like you’re trying specifically to move to LA).

[Anonymous User]

OP here:

Thanks for the thoughtful responses. I’m not sure what I want to do career wise. I don’t think I want to return to private practice. I thinking clerking is probably the beat lit job there is, especially once you get to higher levels of federal pay. I make close to six figure, never work weekends, and don’t think about work at all once I leave my office at 5 or 6 every night. You also get to basically tour the country if you do it right.

I’d like to either be a permanent-clerk or teach LRW somewhere. I think a district or appellate clerkship would be better for my goals. But I’m 0-2 on district interviews and am too late to apply for appellate judges at this point for 2020 .

So here I am, presented with an interview in a very cool area to live. I think, I’m terms of my goals, the position is neutral. It doesn’t help or hurt. I am, however, more receptive to it because I think it carries a bit more weight than the typical mag clerkship given the location; I could be wrong about that. I’m also a little concerned because it will put me at 4 years clerking. And I’m not sure I want this to be my last federal clerkship.

I’m leaning towards taking if offered at this point. At worst it’s another year or two of something I can tolerate for decent pay in a cool area of the country.