LawSchool.Life

Does it matter if I swap out a recommender for my OSCAR application? About a month ago, I sent in paper apps with Recommenders A, B, and C. I'm monitoring OSCAR as listings open up, and one just recently came up. I applied to this judge previously in a paper application. Would it matter if my OSCAR...

Should I avoid taking any seminars? I agree with Nony. You don't want to go overboard, but seminars can help give your application a little flavor if you're otherwise a pretty plain vanilla candidate. A judge trying to get a sense of who you are, which is usually what the interview focuses on, is m...

Aye or nay on mentioning a CALI for Professional Responsibility (required ethics, MPRE class) in a clerkship cover letter? State judges if it makes any difference (course was based on the Model Rules). I’d probably just put it on your resume and omit it from the cover letter unless you have somethi...

What do we need to bring to interviews? A copy of everything in our app, or? I would (with unofficial transcripts only and excepting letters of recommendation). They'll probably have a copy of everything you gave them, but you'll be prepared in case they don't, you'll be able to go over anything yo...

Agreed - this isn’t something it’s really possible to put a percentage on because it’s so dependent on the judge. Just another great reason to do as much research as you can while applying, especially once you land an interview. (It’s not “super uncommon,” though - judges are at the top of an indust...

This is pretty common.

In the chambers I've worked in, you probably wouldn't have had the chance to schedule further out. Once my judges were ready to start interviewing, they were also ready to hire, and the offer to interview was generally presented as "here are two days the judge has available [usually in the very near...

It sounds alright to me. A few random thoughts on writing samples: (1) Something prepared in litigation is usually better than something academic, as it's closer to what the court actually does. You've got that. (2) Relatedly, something taking a definite position is better than a "survey of the law"...

No.

My co-clerk and I were debating whether we should get gifts for everyone in chambers for Christmas and I was wondering if there was a general consensus on this. No one has mentioned a gift exchange and I just assumed there wouldn't be one. My co-clerk really wanted to get a something small (like ca...

I'd call COA "possible," but not much about your application stands out (except maybe work experience, depending on what you were doing). I think your chances would improve significantly with good legal work experience or a district court clerkship, though.

Any reason you're planning to filter by politics at some point? At least on the federal side, and particularly outside of SCOTUS and appellate level, it doesn't come up as often as you'd think and, if you lose a few of your four to five positive responses after filtering for politics, you're not lea...

Your clerkship office should have resources (assuming they'll let you use them for off-plan judges if you're not a 3L) - it's been a while, but I think the Judicial Yellow Book had some of that information. You might also be able to find some of them as reference materials in a law library if your c...

If all else fails, you can try cold-calling former clerks if you can find any on the internet - I never had a problem getting one to talk to me, even absent anything in common, for interview prep. (Bonus: if you end up wanting the job, doing prep can help you look conscientious.) You can't really as...

+1 to most of what's been said here. I don't want to say that it's going to be impossible, but (if you really want to clerk) you're probably going to have to go a lot broader than 20 judges or so - people with much better grades from much better ranked schools would still have a pretty rough time wi...

Yeah, how hard it will be depends on when your fellowship ends and how close together you need the end date and start date to be. Start dates for clerkships have some flexibility, but it tends to be limited to a few weeks rather than a few months, and most judges do most of their hiring in August an...

I guess it depends what you’re using DC/2nd/9th as a shorthand for. If you’re willing to apply broadly within those circuits, they’re certainly not all feeder-level picky, but then I don’t know if a spot in Idaho, Montana, upstate New York, Vermont, etc. meet whatever criteria you’re trying to satis...

Wouldn’t blame you at all. A bird in the hand etc.

I agree as well. Clerking can be valuable for lots of reasons, but for most people the biggest plus is the chance to get a ton of substantive research and writing experience early on. With respect to this particular judge (district?), it sounds like you're probably better off where you already are.

Generally agree with the takes here - I don't think absolutely everyone should try to clerk just for the sake of clerking, but it's hard to deny that (1) litigation and anything like it/adjacent to it involves persuading judges and their staff, and seeing how things look from the other side is inval...

Sure, you're in the running. Perhaps even moreso with a year of work experience, if that's a route you'd consider and it makes sense for your goals.

emkay625 wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 17, 2018 10:21 am

rok wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:12 pm

Any info on how quickly interview invites will go out after OSCAR app opens?

Totally dependent on the judge. Some only keep the OSCAR app open a few days, some for several months.

+1. Generally best to just put it out of your head after you apply if you can (and keep applying other places).

Perhaps eventually, but two weeks over isn't that long.

Hi, starting a dist. ct. clerkship soon, and I have two questions: (1) Anything in particular I should/should not bring with me on my first day? (2) What's the deal with bluebook/westlaw/lexis? Are those things/memberships to those things provided? Thanks! (1) Not really, aside from the obvious (ma...

I think it could be pretty valuable. I'd be okay with you putting it on your resume without any qualifications, so (if it's a yearlong position) it's not going to appear very differently at the outset. I generally agree with Nony that I'd at least be pretty hesitant to turn down full-time work for i...