Recommenders Calling Judge on Your Behalf Forum

[huntin4clerkships]

I’m currently in a district court clerkship, and I would like to move up to a circuit clerkship.

I have three to four recommenders/mentors/friends that are mutual friends with the circuit judges for whom I’d like to clerk. I want to exhaust all possible ins/connections that would benefit me in the interview and hiring process. But at the same time, I do not want to go overboard or be seen as overbearing to a judge.

Question: What is the safe in-between for those two goals regarding connections reaching out to judges on your behalf?

[Anonymous User]

I’m currently in a district court clerkship, and I would like to move up to a circuit clerkship.

I have three to four recommenders/mentors/friends that are mutual friends with the circuit judges for whom I’d like to clerk. I want to exhaust all possible ins/connections that would benefit me in the interview and hiring process. But at the same time, I do not want to go overboard or be seen as overbearing to a judge.

Question: What is the safe in-between for those two goals regarding connections reaching out to judges on your behalf?

I think you have to trust your recommenders to know what they're doing and let them decide what's "too much." Second, I think the diminishing value of recommender calls comes pretty quickly -- their main value is getting your application pulled off of the stack of 300 -- and that probably happens after 1-2 calls.

[Anonymous User]

Have one person call per judge, unless they are particularly close to the judge, in which case two may be fine.

If they are good friends with the judge, I don’t think it’s overbearing for the judge to receive a couple different emails that are like “hey, look at this candidate; I promise she is wonderful.”

But if they are more like professional acquaintances, I’d say the general wisdom that one call is enough and more is overbearing still applies.

[Anonymous User]

If your clerkship office is competent this is the sort of thing they can help manage behind the scenes. The good ones know how to get certain candidates pulled by certain judges.

[Anonymous User]

If your clerkship office is competent this is the sort of thing they can help manage behind the scenes. The good ones know how to get certain candidates pulled by certain judges.

Thanks. Unfortunately, my school does not have a typical clerkship office.

[thelastlion]

Calls from two people with a preexisting relationship/friendship with your desired judge should be enough to get your application picked from the pile, which is really all you're after in this situation.