Clerkship strategy & CoA chances - top of low T1 Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm a rising 2L at a lower T1 school (30-50 range), and I finished my 1L year at the top of my class.

I realize that it will still be extremely difficult to get a CoA clerkship for the 2019-20 term, but I want to try. I may be open to stacking CoA on a district court clerkship, but I wouldn't want to stack a two-year CoA clerkship on top of a one-year district level clerkship. Only a small portion of graduates from my school clerk at the federal level after graduation, and the even fewer who clerked at a CoA right after graduation seemed to have graduated top of their class, so I guess I'm on track for that at the moment.

I would much prefer to go straight to a CoA rather than stack my clerkships. Given that, when applications open, should I mass apply to judges across the country? I'd go most anywhere for CoA, and I'm not strongly partisan, so I don't mind more conservative or liberal judges. Or should I apply to a mix of CoA and district judges?

Any insight on my chances? Ways to up my chances?

[lavarman84]

Mass apply to COA judges from now through the end of the Fall. If you're not getting any bites, you can start selectively applying to D. Ct. judges in the spring. If you are getting bites but haven't yet secured anything, it's up to you if you want to wait to apply to D. Ct. judges come the spring.

[mjb447]

Are there any limits on your ability to apply? Since you may not be able to be too choosy, there's really no reason not to mass apply if you can afford it and everyone who needs to be (recommenders, clerkship office) is on board. (Of course, if you find out that a particular judge has never hired anyone outside the T6, you may decide to save yourself the hassle.)

You should apply to the judges who have hired from your school in the past, both because you know that they're amenable to it (or were at one point) and because you may be able to tap their former clerks for information about how to apply and interview.

How wedded are you to 2019-20? If you're thinking about possibly landing a district court position before that, you'll want to start applying to district judges as soon as possible because a lot of those positions are already gone. Also, if you're willing to clerk in a later term, it may be easier to justify only/mostly sending out CoA apps this time, seeing how you do, and deciding if you want to change your strategy in a later cycle if it doesn't work out.

It's pretty hard to chance you, but it sounds like it's worth applying given your rank and your school's history.

[Anonymous User]

You definitely have a shot. I landed a CoA clerkship as summa from T30, but I also had a d.ct. gig between graduation and CoA. I think a district court clerkship would help your odds a lot (most CoA judges who aren't feeders like seeing work experience). I agree with what other people have said in this thread regarding judges who have hired from your school. I'd also target judges who have graduated from your school (if there are any).

I STRONGLY recommend blanketing CoA judges with paper applications. I know paper applications are incredibly tedious, but if you use mail-merge, it'll cut down on application prep time a lot. You'll hit judges who aren't on OSCAR, and I think a paper app is more likely to get noticed than an OSCAR app anyway. Plus there's the added benefit that clerkships for judges who only accept paper apps tend to be easier to get, as (total mind fact) there are far fewer applications.

[Anonymous User]

Also t-30ish summa here. Landed COA for right after graduation. Got a number of interviews (4). Don't count yourself out at all. Just apply broadly, and especially target any alumni judges are ones in your region. If your recommenders can make calls, ask them to.

ETA: Agree w/ paper apps. I got way more interest per paper app than via OSCAR (only 1 OSCAR interview, 3 from paper).