Am I even competitive? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hey all - thinking of making the jump from public interest to the private sector and have contemplated the idea of trying to clerk in between in hopes of enhancing my exit options thereafter. I never even contemplated a clerkship on the federal level while I was in law school, so I have absolutely no idea what the candidate pool is like for these positions/if this is even a reality for me such that I should even waste time considering this route.
My stats are as follows (hoping someone can weigh in on whether it'd be worth it for me to even apply)

-graduated from Cardozo
-GPA 3.25
-Journal and trial team
-I clerked for the appellate division in NJ right after law school
-I've been at a top PD office in NYC for the last 3 years.

All brutal honesty/feedback is appreciated - I really would just like to know if I should set my sights elsewhere - thanks!

[LBJ's Hair]

Your stats (GPA, school) would not make you competitive for a COA or district court clerkship in a major metro area. Don't know much about selectivity of district courts in rural areas

*Possible* a liberal district judge just loves your PD background (mostly) and prior state clerkship experience (a little) and is willing to bring you in for an interview based on that? You're in NY, so could blast apps to EDNY, SDNY, DNJ, tailor the cover letter appropriately? I think it's quite unlikely you'll get any interviews, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't apply.

[lavarman84]

Clerkship hiring is idiosyncratic, so it's not possible to rule out you landing a clerkship. However, I would say that you're not competitive. Might be a handful of judges out there who would see something in your application, but you won't escape the pile in the typical chambers.

[Bnonymous]

Hi OP - For what it’s worth, I say go for it. Your stats wouldn’t put you in the running as a recent graduate, but the state-level appellate clerkship and PD combo helps. With some networking (any chance your former judge has connections that could help?) and geographic flexibility, you might stand a chance.

[mjb447]

Pretty unlikely, especially if you’re reluctant to leave the NYC/NJ area. That said, you don’t lose much by applying and the application package is fairly standard between judges, so you can still do it without a ton of effort; you just have to be okay with it probably not panning out. It’s also a little harder to completely prejudge for someone with work experience.

[Anonymous User]

Another data point, current student with a 4.0 at a T25, applied to ~150 district court clerkships across the country and got one interview. If you pursue clerking, I'd reccomend targeting judges who were former PDs and really relying on connections to push your application to specific judges. Applying broadly without connections is not likely to yield positive results.

[Wild Card]

Focus on the DNJ judges and also apply to all of the state supreme court judges.

[lavarman84]

Another data point, current student with a 4.0 at a T25, applied to ~150 district court clerkships across the country and got one interview. If you pursue clerking, I'd reccomend targeting judges who were former PDs and really relying on connections to push your application to specific judges. Applying broadly without connections is not likely to yield positive results.

That's a bit weird, tbh. You should be doing better than that. I guess it depends on how competitive the D. Cts., but it sounds like you've applied fairly broadly.

[FascinatedWanderer]

If you’re mass spamming standard applications it could be worth it. But if the process will take any significant amount of time then I’d say it’s not worth it because chances at any federal district clerkship are vanishingly small.

[Quichelorraine]

Echo on the "it's tough," I'm afraid. I don't think that the App Div clerkship will do much for you in DNJ, to be honest. There are a gazillion of App Div clerks out there, many of whom will have the home-court advantage of Rutgers/Seton Hall. And while I knew of several NJ Supreme-->DNJ clerks, I knew of only one App Div --> DNJ clerk.

(Now, if your App Div judge *knows* a DNJ judge, that's a different story. It's a small legal community, and a recommendation from judge to judge could get your application pulled from the pile.)

As others have mentioned, though, clerkship hiring is really idiosyncratic, and it's trivial to fire off a gazillion Oscar applications once you have your basic package put together. So it can't hurt, exactly.

Also: don't discount Magistrate Judges, who might be interested in someone with your background/practice experience, especially given the amount of criminal law work some of them do.

[decimalsanddollars]

Definitely consider magistrate judges and apply broadly. It's not impossible, but Article III clerkships in the northeast are pretty hard to come by for non-HYSCCN applicants (and non-top students at those schools).