Anonymous User wrote:Anonymous User wrote:Does Judge E. Carnes look for ties to Alabama? Does anyone have any info on his hiring practices or what he looks for in a candidate?
From what I've picked up from a couple acquaintances who are or will be clerking for him:
His biggest thing is writing skills. Make sure to send a writing sample that no one else has edited, make it PERFECT, and be ready to discuss both the sample and your approach to writing generally if you get an interview. He's also very grade-conscious, and prefers law review.
Ties to the South are a bump. Doesn't have to be Alabama-specific, although that surely wouldn't hurt.
I can confirm this. I interviewed Carnes a few years ago.
Your writing sample will be front and center during your interview with him. He will have read the sample in its entirety and will likely go through some sort of exercise with you to gauge your writing skills. I'd estimate that we spent about 15-20 minutes discussing my writing sample. He is definitely grade-conscious. I remember him asking about the classes in which I got my lowest grades. I also got the sense that he had spoken with a number of my recommenders and, I think, even professors who didn't write letters of recommendation. Overall, it was an intense interview because of how prepared he was. So you should make sure that you're extremely prepared for the interview.
Ties to the South are probably a small bump. I was asked about it, and had to admit that I had none. But I think a number of his clerks who I spoke with also had little or no ties, and if having no ties were disqualifying, I doubt he would have interviewed me because my resume suggested that I had no ties.