(1) Are there any websites which guess as to which judges will be appointed to a higher seat (ie. COA) or what magistrate judges are due to be appointed to the DC?


As I am narrowing down my list it seems that an internship with an up-and-comer judge would be advantageous. I have tried to research the judges political ties, former clerkships with high ranking judges, their age (some are just too old) and their educational background to try to get a rough estimate.

(2) are there any other factors I should be adding to my equation?

Thanks

It seems a bit rich to be be "narrowing down" your list when you don't have a single offer, phone call, or response.

First, there are a couple of useful threads in the employment forum you might want to check out.

Second, the prestige of your judge doesn't matter a whole lot... it's really not a big resume booster. From what I hear, it's also pretty rare that a judge will really go to bat for you or give you a leg up for a clerkship...

The conventional wisdom seems to be find a judge who gets interesting cases, has an office somewhere that is or can be convenient for you, and doesn't have a reputation for being a monster to clerks/interns. What you get out of the experience is way more important than the line item on your resume.

[Clueless 1L, grains of salt, could be wrong, etc.]

I am targeting a small division of a small district. Point well taken though since you are probably right. I am naive to the entire process and am unaware of the competition for internships with federal judges.

Good chemistry between you and the judge and his/her staff.

Opportunity to write memos and orders/opinions and permission to use a redacted version of something you write as a writing sample.

[/quote]
When I was a 1L, I had about a 10:1 letter-to-interview rate. So you may want to expand your search. Or just send out the letters to your preferred location now, wait a week, and then send out the other ones if you haven't heard anything.

Edit: 9:1, not 10:1.

When I was a 1L, I had about a 10:1 letter-to-interview rate. So you may want to expand your search. Or just send out the letters to your preferred location now, wait a week, and then send out the other ones if you haven't heard anything.[/quote]

ggocat,

how many did you send out?

Keep in mind that many state appellete courts aren't in session during the summer, so the experience is going to be different. That said, don't entirely discount state court judges. A few friends of mine interned with state trial court judges, and they all had a really interesting experience. Wide range of work involved, there.

As a poster above mentioned, the judge's confidentiality policy is really important. I just wanted to emphasize it. The judge I worked for (state supreme court chief justice) has a pretty draconian policy--absolutely no use of any work for writing sample purposes. Furthermore, I can't tell anyone what cases/issues I worked on (the rule: if a person reading all of the material submitted to the court for the term could figure out which case I was talking about, that was a breach) until the term is over. That made some OCI conversations awkward. ("Wow, that seems like it would be an interesting position. What issues did you have a chance to work on?" Response: *stealthily looking around* "I'm afraid that information is classified, sir." While that obviously wasn't the response I used, I felt like a massive jackass having to say I couldn't talk about the specific issues/cases.)

Check to see how much face time you're actually getting with the judge. Some judges, particularly at the appellete level, have their clerks handle all of the interns. That is easily hidden in an interview and doesn't show up on a resume, but it would cheapen the experience itself.

You also want to see what a judge's policy is about interns sitting in on discovery conferences and other more informal court proceedings.

Finally, you want to see whether a judge will let you cut out for a day if another judge is presiding over a jury selection, or an actual trial.

Forty-five letters to district judges. I edited my earlier post; ratio was closer to 9:1, but more like 8:1 if you include the "please submit grades, and we'll review applications in February/March" responses. (I sent letters out Dec. 1 and requested interviews over the break, so I never sent grades out.)


This is great advice; don't discount state judges. I split my 1L summer with state and federal judges, and I appreciated the different experiences. But not all state appellate judges are "off" for the summer, and even if they aren't sitting, you will likely still do substantive work.