2023-2024 Clerkship Application Thread Forum

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with judge on Thursday for 2024 and the waiting is horrendous lol --> how long before I should call it an L (end of this week?

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with judge on Thursday for 2024 and the waiting is horrendous lol --> how long before I should call it an L (end of this week?

The judge/JA didn't give a timeline? The one I interviewed with told me it would be a few weeks before I had an answer one way or another (presumably the judge wants to interview all candidates or something).

[Anonymous User]

Interviewed with judge on Thursday for 2024 and the waiting is horrendous lol --> how long before I should call it an L (end of this week?

Honestly, unless they gave you a deadline you’d hear by, no way to know.

[Anonymous User]

Seeing the OSCAR number of available apps increase as positions get filled while waiting for a single interview invite is prob the worst part of the process

[Anonymous User]

Is the second week usually this quiet…?

[TAR111]

Is the second week usually this quiet…?

I’m sure there are things happening, but TLS isn’t always going to get word of them right away

[Anonymous User]

Question about hiring. I am one of those magna/magna equivalent T6ers who applied broadly on Circuits and narrowly on districts (SDNY/EDNY/DDC/CDCA) and have not heard anything. OSCAR full at 100. I was wondering if I should withdraw from those more competitive judges and make room to add applications to the EDPA, EDVA, DMD, DNJ, DCN, DMA, etc... But, before I do this I have two questions. One, am I correct to assume competitive judges are out of the equation and thus should lower my expectations? And two, if I applied on OSCAR now to these other districts would my application actually get looked at, or are they not going to check OSCAR and have probably finished their interview invites.

I sent an email asking this to my clerkship office and they sent a short, curt response back that they do not believe, with a few exceptions (who they unhelpfully did not reveal) even the most competitive judges are done hiring, which is not very helpful to me as like yeah they're not done hiring but they have very little if any interviews left I would assume. Thus, I come to TLS for the hard truth in my situation.

I don’t know who’s done hiring or not but if you are serious about clerking and really don’t want to strike out this time around, I wouldn’t consider those other courts “beneath” you. I had similar grades at my T6 and ended up on a district court you didn’t even mention. And past clerks for my judge have come from (or gone to) places like Kellogg, Munger, and W&C. And we’ve dinged people with your grade/school profile this year.

Not trying to scare you but don’t assume you’ve got a tippy top district locked down because you have good grades. Likewise there are people with materially worse credentials that will get SDNY. It’s not as simple as good grades = automatic preftigious clerkship. So if you’re serious apply everywhere you are okay living for a year with every judge that seems good. If you are open striking out and clerking 3-5 years out you could probably be picky as to geography though.

[Anonymous User]

Question about hiring. I am one of those magna/magna equivalent T6ers who applied broadly on Circuits and narrowly on districts (SDNY/EDNY/DDC/CDCA) and have not heard anything. OSCAR full at 100. I was wondering if I should withdraw from those more competitive judges and make room to add applications to the EDPA, EDVA, DMD, DNJ, DCN, DMA, etc... But, before I do this I have two questions. One, am I correct to assume competitive judges are out of the equation and thus should lower my expectations? And two, if I applied on OSCAR now to these other districts would my application actually get looked at, or are they not going to check OSCAR and have probably finished their interview invites.

I sent an email asking this to my clerkship office and they sent a short, curt response back that they do not believe, with a few exceptions (who they unhelpfully did not reveal) even the most competitive judges are done hiring, which is not very helpful to me as like yeah they're not done hiring but they have very little if any interviews left I would assume. Thus, I come to TLS for the hard truth in my situation.

I don’t know who’s done hiring or not but if you are serious about clerking and really don’t want to strike out this time around, I wouldn’t consider those other courts “beneath” you. I had similar grades at my T6 and ended up on a district court you didn’t even mention. And past clerks for my judge have come from (or gone to) places like Kellogg, Munger, and W&C. And we’ve dinged people with your grade/school profile this year.

Not trying to scare you but don’t assume you’ve got a tippy top district locked down because you have good grades. Likewise there are people with materially worse credentials that will get SDNY. It’s not as simple as good grades = automatic preftigious clerkship. So if you’re serious apply everywhere you are okay living for a year with every judge that seems good. If you are open striking out and clerking 3-5 years out you could probably be picky as to geography though.

Original anon. Sorry if I came off as saying those other districts were "beneath me" I didn't mean it like that. Happy to apply even more broadly than the districts I mentioned—do you have any suggestions? Or at this point is it just every district I'd be happy to live in?

[Anonymous User]

Do we think 9th circuit is full for this year?

[Anonymous User]

Question about hiring. I am one of those magna/magna equivalent T6ers who applied broadly on Circuits and narrowly on districts (SDNY/EDNY/DDC/CDCA) and have not heard anything. OSCAR full at 100. I was wondering if I should withdraw from those more competitive judges and make room to add applications to the EDPA, EDVA, DMD, DNJ, DCN, DMA, etc... But, before I do this I have two questions. One, am I correct to assume competitive judges are out of the equation and thus should lower my expectations? And two, if I applied on OSCAR now to these other districts would my application actually get looked at, or are they not going to check OSCAR and have probably finished their interview invites.

I sent an email asking this to my clerkship office and they sent a short, curt response back that they do not believe, with a few exceptions (who they unhelpfully did not reveal) even the most competitive judges are done hiring, which is not very helpful to me as like yeah they're not done hiring but they have very little if any interviews left I would assume. Thus, I come to TLS for the hard truth in my situation.

I don’t know who’s done hiring or not but if you are serious about clerking and really don’t want to strike out this time around, I wouldn’t consider those other courts “beneath” you. I had similar grades at my T6 and ended up on a district court you didn’t even mention. And past clerks for my judge have come from (or gone to) places like Kellogg, Munger, and W&C. And we’ve dinged people with your grade/school profile this year.

Not trying to scare you but don’t assume you’ve got a tippy top district locked down because you have good grades. Likewise there are people with materially worse credentials that will get SDNY. It’s not as simple as good grades = automatic preftigious clerkship. So if you’re serious apply everywhere you are okay living for a year with every judge that seems good. If you are open striking out and clerking 3-5 years out you could probably be picky as to geography though.

Original anon. Sorry if I came off as saying those other districts were "beneath me" I didn't mean it like that. Happy to apply even more broadly than the districts I mentioned—do you have any suggestions? Or at this point is it just every district I'd be happy to live in?

I’d suggest every district that you’d be happy to live in, with the caveat that you could probably keep it to places in decently sized metro areas where you will see some commercial litigation. But I’d 100% be applying to judges in SF, DMV area, Houston, Dallas, Cleveland, Philly, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Newark, and maybe also San Diego, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Portland, NOLA, San Antonio, Austin, Sacramento, Nashville, Tampa. There’s more places that’s just off the top of my head. And with the caveat that the judge matters as much as the court many times, so do research. There are judges on NDIL way more ‘prestigious’ and selective than many SDNY judges. Likewise it’s not worth it to work for a nightmare judge imo

[Anonymous User]

Are there any circuit judges who regularly hire alumni who are a few years out into practice?

[kolio6]

Are there any circuit judges who regularly hire alumni who are a few years out into practice?

I believe Rawlinson, White, and Rogeriee Thompson like alums

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard if Contreras is full for 23-24 or 24-25? He's still showing as open on OSCAR but I find that hard to believe...

[Anonymous User]

Are there any circuit judges who regularly hire alumni who are a few years out into practice?

Perez, too

[Anonymous User]

For those of us that struck out completely is there that much of an alumni boost for next year assuming our grades are the same? I'll still try again, but wondering if I should use this cycle as an indication that I was way too optimistic.

[Anonymous User]

For those of us that struck out completely is there that much of an alumni boost for next year assuming our grades are the same? I'll still try again, but wondering if I should use this cycle as an indication that I was way too optimistic.

Hmm...well, I'm curious to know why you think you struck out completely? How broadly did you apply? I was an alumni applicant and had success but I think it was less to do with the fact that I had work experience and more that I applied broadly and got my professors to make calls in support of my applicant.

[Anonymous User]

Another day no rejection, no offer from 2 interviews lol . . . we still alive

[Anonymous User]

For those of us that struck out completely is there that much of an alumni boost for next year assuming our grades are the same? I'll still try again, but wondering if I should use this cycle as an indication that I was way too optimistic.

Hmm...well, I'm curious to know why you think you struck out completely? How broadly did you apply? I was an alumni applicant and had success but I think it was less to do with the fact that I had work experience and more that I applied broadly and got my professors to make calls in support of my applicant.

MVP and top 5% + LR.Applied to every Circuit court judge that took apps but no district courts. Thought that would have been alright since all in my Circuit apps totaled about 90, but it seems like this was a poor idea. Next time perhaps my target would be non SDNY/DDC district courts.

[Anonymous User]

Any movement from the non-NDIL Midwest/Great Lakes district courts (in OH, MI, IN, etc.)?

[Anonymous User]

Lamberth, Scudder

[Anonymous User]

Lamberth, Scudder

Lamberth has hired

[Anonymous User]

Any movement from the non-NDIL Midwest/Great Lakes district courts (in OH, MI, IN, etc.)?

Bump lol I would also love to know.

[Anonymous User]

Any movement from the non-NDIL Midwest/Great Lakes district courts (in OH, MI, IN, etc.)?

Bump lol I would also love to know.

NYU has Levy (E.D. Mich.) as moving. Nothing else, but can't imagine lots of NYU students are applying in those areas. I feel like at this point if you haven't hard anything from those courts it is over right?

[Anonymous User]

Any movement from the non-NDIL Midwest/Great Lakes district courts (in OH, MI, IN, etc.)?

Hala Jarbou, Thomas L. Ludington, David M. Lawson, Laurie J. Michelson, Mary M. Rowland have all interviewed/offered for 23

[Anonymous User]

Any movement from the non-NDIL Midwest/Great Lakes district courts (in OH, MI, IN, etc.)?

Hala Jarbou, Thomas L. Ludington, David M. Lawson, Laurie J. Michelson, Mary M. Rowland have all interviewed/offered for 23

Anyone know if Linda Parker or Terrence Berg have hired?