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Current d.ct. clerk with a COA interview lined up. Is it helpful at all to have a professor or my current judge call or email before or after the interview to advocate for me? If so, would before or after he more effective? TIA!

Do before, many judges (as I am sure you know) offer shortly—if not immediately—after the interview. Psychologically, the judge will also be primed more positively having heard positive things about you going into the interview. I would probably lean towards having the district judge make the call/email unless the Professor you mentioned is tight with the COA judge and they have a solid raport.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 08, 2022 11:52 am

Current d.ct. clerk with a COA interview lined up. Is it helpful at all to have a professor or my current judge call or email before or after the interview to advocate for me? If so, would before or after he more effective? TIA!

Do not do after - do before. Would have the professor call, not the judge. If your current clerkship is listed on your resume or your district court judge is listed as a reference for you in your cover letter, the COA judge is almost certainly going to call them to see what's up about you.

OP here. Thank you all! Would it be strange/too much for both to call or email?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 11, 2022 6:18 pm

OP here. Thank you all! Would it be strange/too much for both to call or email?

If you mean having a professor and your current judge call, I’ll defer to others in the thread, but that would be fine with the judges I’ve clerked for. In fact, having two recommenders reach out (call and email, respectively) got me an interview.