Clerkships - Cover Letters? Forum

[Anonymous User]

How much are these personalized/tailored to the individual judges? How do these differ from law firm cover letters? Does anyone have any examples?

[Anonymous User]

Check with your career office. They should have examples on file, and will be much more helpful than a bunch of your anonymous peers who are also hoping to clerk.

[TTT-LS]

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[Anonymous User]

I usually reserved one or two sentences at the end of my first paragraph to do this. While there are all kinds of perspectives on what a clerkship cover letter should look like, the majority view appears to be that applicants should keep it short and sweet. Thus, my letters basically went something like

Paragraph 1
Sentence 1: I'm a 3L at XXX and am interested in a clerkship in your chambers.
Sentences 2 and 3: Ties/specific points of interest in that clerkship

Paragraph 2
Sentence 1: Enclosed please find a copy of my resume, transcript, writing sample, etc.
Sentence 2: Should you require any additional information, please let me know.
Sentence 3: Thank you for your time and consideration of my application.

Sincerely,
TTT-LS

I'm not the original poster, but that seems crazy. I had a professor tell me that you're supposed to use the cover letter to somehow tell the judge more about you, not necessarily professional/academic stuff, but somehow something personal. Was that BS?

[ggocat]

I usually reserved one or two sentences at the end of my first paragraph to do this. While there are all kinds of perspectives on what a clerkship cover letter should look like, the majority view appears to be that applicants should keep it short and sweet. Thus, my letters basically went something like

Paragraph 1
Sentence 1: I'm a 3L at XXX and am interested in a clerkship in your chambers.
Sentences 2 and 3: Ties/specific points of interest in that clerkship

Paragraph 2
Sentence 1: Enclosed please find a copy of my resume, transcript, writing sample, etc.
Sentence 2: Should you require any additional information, please let me know.
Sentence 3: Thank you for your time and consideration of my application.

Sincerely,
TTT-LS

I'm not the original poster, but that seems crazy. I had a professor tell me that you're supposed to use the cover letter to somehow tell the judge more about you, not necessarily professional/academic stuff, but somehow something personal. Was that BS?

See bolded, above.

I've seen many "successful" clerkship cover letters, and there is no hard and fast rule specific to clerkship applications.

[mumbling2myself]

My lettters all go like this:

Judge:

You has clerkship.

I has want.



-m2m

I'm also submitting all of my apps to lady judges on paper so that I can douse them in my cologne. Aqua Velva FTW!

[Corsair]

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