Top Law Schools

How long into a clerkship before it's appropriate to ask your judge to write you a letter of recommendation or be a reference for other clerkship applications? I have a D.Ct clerkship starting around now and am I'm hoping to apply for 2023-2024 COA. I know a lot of judges have already finished hiring, but others are hiring this Spring/Summer. Is it inappropriate to ask a judge for whom you're currently clerking to write a letter of recommendation or act as a reference for you? Thanks in advance!

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 26, 2022 12:57 am

How long into a clerkship before it's appropriate to ask your judge to write you a letter of recommendation or be a reference for other clerkship applications? I have a D.Ct clerkship starting around now and am I'm hoping to apply for 2023-2024 COA. I know a lot of judges have already finished hiring, but others are hiring this Spring/Summer. Is it inappropriate to ask a judge for whom you're currently clerking to write a letter of recommendation or act as a reference for you? Thanks in advance!

Definitely not inappropriate to ask mid-clerkship. I asked for a rec about 5 months in. You just have to balance waiting long enough that the judge actually knows your work and feels comfortable writing positively about it with not waiting so long that a lot of hires are made before you get your app together.

Personally, I would have felt uncomfortable to make that ask while still figuring out how the job works and before having a few opinions out the door. I'd think ~3 months might be the lower limit for a full rec but it also probably depends by judge.

Agreed with the above. It’s totally fine to ask a judge you’re currently clerking for, just best to have enough work built up they have something to go on. I was able to use my judge as a reference about 3 months in (but that was also dictated by an external job deadline, which made it a little easier to bring up).

Amazing! Thank you all!