What to expect (if anything) on June 15 Forum

[Anonymous User]

I am a 2L at a school without much institutional clerkship information. Can folks who have been through the process share stories about what to expect, if anything, on June 15's release of applications? If we haven't heard by the end of the week, are we out of luck for on-plan judges?

[Anonymous User]

I am a 2L at a school without much institutional clerkship information. Can folks who have been through the process share stories about what to expect, if anything, on June 15's release of applications? If we haven't heard by the end of the week, are we out of luck for on-plan judges?

The superstars will get interview invites immediately after the plan opens and will have clerkships by the end of the day. A lot of the judges in the competitive districts will have finished hiring by the end of the week, but certainly not all of the judges. Hiring will continue through June and will pretty much be done by July, but some judges do hire a bit later on. Ultimately a very idiosyncratic process.

[Anonymous User]

I am a 2L at a school without much institutional clerkship information. Can folks who have been through the process share stories about what to expect, if anything, on June 15's release of applications? If we haven't heard by the end of the week, are we out of luck for on-plan judges?

The superstars will get interview invites immediately after the plan opens and will have clerkships by the end of the day. A lot of the judges in the competitive districts will have finished hiring by the end of the week, but certainly not all of the judges. Hiring will continue through June and will pretty much be done by July, but some judges do hire a bit later on. Ultimately a very idiosyncratic process.

Yeah. I had a misconception that the first 24 hours after the judges began being able to reach out to rising 3L applicants were make or break, which is entirely untrue for almost everyone. Feeder judges move extremely quickly—after all, they're racing to snatch the top candidates who will mostly all be hired by Wednesday or Thursday. It kind of descends by competitiveness from there. For example, my experience (ended up at SDNY, but kind of a marginal candidate for it) was 3 interview offers, all of which came toward the end of week 2.

[Anonymous User]

The converse is, if you're a very strong candidate you should be ready to do interviews immediately. To the extent possible, clear your calendar for next week and be prepared to make decisions very quickly.

(To be clear, not getting interviews right away doesn't mean you're not a strong candidate. Plenty of people get fantastic clerkships later in the process, including with very selective judges. It's just worth it to prepare in advance if you have the sort of stats that might draw feeder interest.)