Do I have *any* chance at District Court for DC? Forum

[letmelearnlaws]

Like the title says. I'm a 3L with a 3.59 at UVA. On a lesser journal (not law review), and do Moot Court. Not in Fed Soc. Planning on applying for 2022-23 so I'll have a year in practice first. I did a district court internship for 1L summer (not in DC though). After graduating, I'll spend a year working in NYC at a really good firm (think Skadden/Sullivan & Cromwell/ Cravath/Davis Polk/etc). I'm mainly targeting EDVA/MD/EDPA/NJ/EDNY. I want to know if I'd be wasting my time throwing out a bunch of apps to DC District Court judges. I get that it's a stretch to go for D DC, but do I have even a *remote* chance of getting a clerkship there? Any advice would be very welcome.

[Anonymous User]

Like the title says. I'm a 3L with a 3.59 at UVA. On a lesser journal (not law review), and do Moot Court. Not in Fed Soc. Planning on applying for 2022-23 so I'll have a year in practice first. I did a district court internship for 1L summer (not in DC though). After graduating, I'll spend a year working in NYC at a really good firm (think Skadden/Sullivan & Cromwell/ Cravath/Davis Polk/etc). I'm mainly targeting EDVA/MD/EDPA/NJ/EDNY. I want to know if I'd be wasting my time throwing out a bunch of apps to DC District Court judges. I get that it's a stretch to go for D DC, but do I have even a *remote* chance of getting a clerkship there? Any advice would be very welcome.

I only know HLS competitiveness and have no idea what your UVA GPA means, but the general rule is that DDC clerks are all top appellate-level candidates/clerks. If you're not top 10-20% at least, generally DDC is off the table. At least for us, it's significantly more sought after / competitive than SDNY or any other district. Everyone I know who has clerked DDC has been magna, and a few very high magna scotus-level people, most with top judges on CADC/other feeders before or after their district court clerkship.

[letmelearnlaws]

FWIW, I'm fairly certain my GPA puts me a touch below top 20% (as in, slightly worse than a top 20% GPA). UVA doesn't publicly rank, but class rankings from a few years ago leaked one time, and assuming they haven't changed how tight the curve is, it's still accurate. So... I guess that's it for me. Sad.

[Anonymous User]

Like the title says. I'm a 3L with a 3.59 at UVA. On a lesser journal (not law review), and do Moot Court. Not in Fed Soc. Planning on applying for 2022-23 so I'll have a year in practice first. I did a district court internship for 1L summer (not in DC though). After graduating, I'll spend a year working in NYC at a really good firm (think Skadden/Sullivan & Cromwell/ Cravath/Davis Polk/etc). I'm mainly targeting EDVA/MD/EDPA/NJ/EDNY. I want to know if I'd be wasting my time throwing out a bunch of apps to DC District Court judges. I get that it's a stretch to go for D DC, but do I have even a *remote* chance of getting a clerkship there? Any advice would be very welcome.

I only know HLS competitiveness and have no idea what your UVA GPA means, but the general rule is that DDC clerks are all top appellate-level candidates/clerks. If you're not top 10-20% at least, generally DDC is off the table. At least for us, it's significantly more sought after / competitive than SDNY or any other district. Everyone I know who has clerked DDC has been magna, and a few very high magna scotus-level people, most with top judges on CADC/other feeders before or after their district court clerkship.

On the other hand DDC is probably a bit easier to crack than SDNY at my school, esp for Fed Soc. Probably at UVA too given its DC market connections. I doubt there's a significant difference overall except for feeder district judges like Boasberg and Furman.

[Anonymous User]

Like the title says. I'm a 3L with a 3.59 at UVA. On a lesser journal (not law review), and do Moot Court. Not in Fed Soc. Planning on applying for 2022-23 so I'll have a year in practice first. I did a district court internship for 1L summer (not in DC though). After graduating, I'll spend a year working in NYC at a really good firm (think Skadden/Sullivan & Cromwell/ Cravath/Davis Polk/etc). I'm mainly targeting EDVA/MD/EDPA/NJ/EDNY. I want to know if I'd be wasting my time throwing out a bunch of apps to DC District Court judges. I get that it's a stretch to go for D DC, but do I have even a *remote* chance of getting a clerkship there? Any advice would be very welcome.

I only know HLS competitiveness and have no idea what your UVA GPA means, but the general rule is that DDC clerks are all top appellate-level candidates/clerks. If you're not top 10-20% at least, generally DDC is off the table. At least for us, it's significantly more sought after / competitive than SDNY or any other district. Everyone I know who has clerked DDC has been magna, and a few very high magna scotus-level people, most with top judges on CADC/other feeders before or after their district court clerkship.

I also went to HLS, graduated magna, and have a different perspective on DDC/SDNY. There is a feeder judge on DDC (Boasberg) and other excellent judges and possible future feeders. Otherwise, though, many of the judges are not harder to get or more desirable than SDNY judges.

OP, I'd apply widely in DDC. Among the places you're applying, DDC is the tougher district. Good luck!

[Anonymous User]

I think its worth applying, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. FWIW OP's application would have gotten a serious read in my Judge's chambers (which unfortunately can't be said for all applications), but probably wouldn't have gotten an interview without particularly strong LORs and writing sample.

[Anonymous User]

Your current list doesn't put you close to 100 apps, so you might as well apply to DDC too, and SDNY for that matter.

[Anonymous User]

Like the title says. I'm a 3L with a 3.59 at UVA. On a lesser journal (not law review), and do Moot Court. Not in Fed Soc. Planning on applying for 2022-23 so I'll have a year in practice first. I did a district court internship for 1L summer (not in DC though). After graduating, I'll spend a year working in NYC at a really good firm (think Skadden/Sullivan & Cromwell/ Cravath/Davis Polk/etc). I'm mainly targeting EDVA/MD/EDPA/NJ/EDNY. I want to know if I'd be wasting my time throwing out a bunch of apps to DC District Court judges. I get that it's a stretch to go for D DC, but do I have even a *remote* chance of getting a clerkship there? Any advice would be very welcome.

Just apply because clerkship hiring is so random that you never know. I personally clerked after years of people telling me it would never happen, so it can and does happen.

[Anonymous User]

Might as well apply. The selectivity of EDVA and EDNY in particular is pretty similar to DDC, although the other courts mentioned are less so.

[polareagle]

You might consider applying to Judge Rothstein, who's kind of a surprise candidate in this context. She's a senior status Western District of Washington judge who's based out of the DDC/DC Circuit courthouse. Although she is technically "visiting," she's been doing so for a decade and hires at least two clerks to spend full time in DC. Her caseload is still from W.D. Wa., so if it's DDC cases you want, you'll be out of luck. But if, as it seems, you're looking for a federal clerkship physically located in DC, she could be a good option.

[Anonymous User]

You might consider applying to Judge Rothstein, who's kind of a surprise candidate in this context. She's a senior status Western District of Washington judge who's based out of the DDC/DC Circuit courthouse. Although she is technically "visiting," she's been doing so for a decade and hires at least two clerks to spend full time in DC. Her caseload is still from W.D. Wa., so if it's DDC cases you want, you'll be out of luck. But if, as it seems, you're looking for a federal clerkship physically located in DC, she could be a good option.

In other surprisingly-from-DC judges, Gina Groh is pretty close to DC despite being on NDWV.