Mechanics of a Four-Hour Interview Forum

[Anonymous User]

I won't be applying until 2021 but am curious as to how a four-hour interview goes. With whom do you interview? What types of questions does each person ask? I have heard bits and pieces but curious if anyone has personal experience that can share

[Anonymous User]

I won't be applying until 2021 but am curious as to how a four-hour interview goes. With whom do you interview? What types of questions does each person ask? I have heard bits and pieces but curious if anyone has personal experience that can share

I'm not aware of a specific "four hour interview" format. Most clerkship interviews include an interview with the judge and an interview with the law clerks, and each portion can vary in length. My longest interview was just shy of two hours (done via Zoom this past cycle for the COA judge I'll be clerking for) and the questions focused on various experiences on my resume, the comment that I published, my writing sample, and why I wanted to clerk for that particular judge/court. It was clear from the interview that they were trying to gauge my personality and intellect, rather than any specific knowledge about the law. There are also judges that will ask more substantive questions, particularly judges who care about your ideaology.

[Anonymous User]

I won't be applying until 2021 but am curious as to how a four-hour interview goes. With whom do you interview? What types of questions does each person ask? I have heard bits and pieces but curious if anyone has personal experience that can share

I didn't have a four hour long interview. It was 6-7 hours with lunch. Interviewed with judge for about 90 minutes and they asked few substantive questions, preferring to instead ask about my experiences, law school classes, my note, and my resume. After that, I had seperate interviews with all of their clerks, who asked many hypotheticals on constitutional law, statutory interpretation, knowledge of work and what it entailed, etc. All of the clerk interviews were substantive. Midway through the day, I had lunch with judge and all of the clerks.

[nixy]

I'd never heard of a 4-hour interview before, let alone a 6-7 hour one like the one described above, but clearly it's possible. Keep in mind that (generally) COA judges have 4 clerks while DCt judges have two, so yeah, if you have separate interviews with each 4 clerks, that's going to take a while (I didn't interview with any COA judges so that may be why all the interviews I'm familiar with were shorter). Most judges that I'm aware of have the clerks interview a candidate together, rather than separately, so it wouldn't take that long, but since it's clerking, it's down to the individual judge.

In terms of questions asked, I think the two most common goals of an interview are to get to know you/figure out whether they'd like working with you for a year, and to test your substantive knowledge. Different judges will weight those two things differently throughout an interview.

[Anonymous User]

Maybe it’s just because of COVID and everything being remote, but in my experience, 4 hours seems a little crazy. 2 of my interviews lasted about 90 minutes (45 with the clerks, 45 with the judge). The other was a 3 hour phone call with just the judge, which my profs later told me was wildly out of the ordinary.

[Anonymous User]

I had two interviews with COA judges this last cycle (off-plan). One was four hours and the other was about 6. The four-hour one started with the clerks grilling me on constitutional law and some stuff on my resume, then followed with a talk with the judge that started out with light personal stuff and then about an hour of constitutional interpretation. The six-hour one was similar to what an above poster said (I suspect we interviewed with the same judge). I met with the judge for a while, we mostly made small talk. Then the clerks grilled me for a while, then we went to lunch.

The best advice I can give is to be honest. Don't make shit up, if you are stumped, ask for a bit more time. Try to stay relaxed (or at least appear relaxed). A lot of clerks will ask you really hard questions that you have little business knowing the answer to. The point is to see your thought process. Remember that if you really struggle with something, other people will probably as well.

[Anonymous User]

It sounds like the four-hour interviews are more common for judges hiring off-plan, or at least not hiring in the rat race of the first 2 weeks of the plan. Guess that makes sense.

[lavarman84]

I'd never heard of a 4-hour interview before, let alone a 6-7 hour one like the one described above, but clearly it's possible. Keep in mind that (generally) COA judges have 4 clerks while DCt judges have two, so yeah, if you have separate interviews with each 4 clerks, that's going to take a while (I didn't interview with any COA judges so that may be why all the interviews I'm familiar with were shorter). Most judges that I'm aware of have the clerks interview a candidate together, rather than separately, so it wouldn't take that long, but since it's clerking, it's down to the individual judge.

In terms of questions asked, I think the two most common goals of an interview are to get to know you/figure out whether they'd like working with you for a year, and to test your substantive knowledge. Different judges will weight those two things differently throughout an interview.

I'd say most of the interviews I did were 1-2 hours, but I did have a 6-7 hour interview with a judge and his/her clerks.

[Anonymous User]

It sounds like the four-hour interviews are more common for judges hiring off-plan, or at least not hiring in the rat race of the first 2 weeks of the plan. Guess that makes sense.

Also, with Zoom I noticed (especially during the beginning of the plan) judges were interviewing more candidates, and thus having shorter interviews with each candidate. Judges who historically only interviewed 3–6 people in person (for two term clerks) were now interviewing 10+ candidates over Zoom because they weren't as concerned about the candidate's expenses for each interview.