How to Answer "Why This Judge/This Court" in a Cover Letter Forum

[Anonymous User]

As I prepare my applications, I'm finding that more judges than I expected want cover letters that tailored in some way to them. For example, one OSCAR posting says, "The strongest cover letters will explain why the candidate wishes to clerk on [this court] and for [this judge] in particular." I'm struggling with what to single out about a judge. Let's say the reason I want to clerk for them is because their background (former public defender or impact litigator or whatever) is cool and aligns with my future goals. Is that okay? Part of me finds it strange to say "I want to clerk for you because of what you did as an advocate," because a judge is not an advocate. But the alternative seems to just be "your opinions are good," which also seems strange.

What do judges expect when they ask for a "why me"?

[Anonymous User]

No it is totally fine to clerk for a judge because what they did as an advocate. In fact, that is what differentiates them. They're all judges now. Just don't say I want to clerk for you because you were a public defender and I want to ensure the caselaw better protects defendants or something like that as for some judges they may get worried that you won't be able to be a neutral clerk. (Although some judges may be fine with that who knows.)

[Anonymous User]

As I prepare my applications, I'm finding that more judges than I expected want cover letters that tailored in some way to them. For example, one OSCAR posting says, "The strongest cover letters will explain why the candidate wishes to clerk on [this court] and for [this judge] in particular." I'm struggling with what to single out about a judge. Let's say the reason I want to clerk for them is because their background (former public defender or impact litigator or whatever) is cool and aligns with my future goals. Is that okay? Part of me finds it strange to say "I want to clerk for you because of what you did as an advocate," because a judge is not an advocate. But the alternative seems to just be "your opinions are good," which also seems strange.

What do judges expect when they ask for a "why me"?

Desire to be in location long-term, or even short-term if it's where you went to school or grew up or something and you'd "love to return." For judge, just say whatever they did before being a judge is your long term goal. A ton of them were AUSAs or DOJ, so that's usually pretty easy. Some were law firm partners, but that means they usually had a very active/notable pro bono practice and you should look into what that was.

[Anonymous User]

As I prepare my applications, I'm finding that more judges than I expected want cover letters that tailored in some way to them. For example, one OSCAR posting says, "The strongest cover letters will explain why the candidate wishes to clerk on [this court] and for [this judge] in particular." I'm struggling with what to single out about a judge. Let's say the reason I want to clerk for them is because their background (former public defender or impact litigator or whatever) is cool and aligns with my future goals. Is that okay? Part of me finds it strange to say "I want to clerk for you because of what you did as an advocate," because a judge is not an advocate. But the alternative seems to just be "your opinions are good," which also seems strange.

What do judges expect when they ask for a "why me"?

I agree with everyone else that location and judge’s background are the primary and common ones.

Also this is inviting you to reference any connections you may have. “I want to clerk for Judge Doe because my summer internship supervisor Former Doe Clerk X spoke incredibly highly about Judge Doe’s mentorship.”

Sometimes there’s something unique about the docket you can refer to - for instance, if you’re interested in Indian law and the jurisdiction includes Indian country. I wouldn’t rely on this kind of thing *too* heavily because cases tend to be a random selection of all kinds of things, plus the docket may not translate to the clerk’s work (for instance, a district court on the border gets a ton of criminal immigration cases but they’re simple enough the clerk isn’t likely to work on them much). You also don’t want to look like that’s the only thing you want to do. But some awareness of what makes the jurisdiction distinctive could be helpful (if there is anything. There isn’t always).

Also, this can be a little tricky to pull off, and you probably can’t do this for every judge for time constraints, but some judges have various op-eds or more practical writing out there on various subjects. If you find anything you jibe with, you could reference that. The tricky part is not sounding like a complete kiss ass, or claiming knowledge about a subject you don’t have.

Last thing (sort of related to the above), you can actually try a version of “your opinions are good,” but this is probably going to work best (if at all) when the judge is known for a particular kind of jurisprudence or writing style or the like. To use an obsolete reference, Selya on the First Circuit and his vocabulary. Again, this can sound ass-kissy, and a lot of judges aren’t distinctive in any way, so this can be tricky as well. But if googling a little bit pulls up anything you can consider trying to reference something like this.