Post
by Anonymous User » Thu Nov 23, 2017 1:49 pm
It all really depends on the chambers and circumstances. I'll speak from my experience, which includes hearing my judge talk in some detail about his/her calls with professors. In my chambers, three recommenders calling for a single candidate would be overkill and likely would annoy my judge, unless all the recommenders personally know the judge. I think post-interview calls generally would be ineffective in my chambers; the judge, my co-clerks and I have already formed our opinions of you and likely will not change our views (unless, for instance, the judge had a reservation about some aspect of your application/interview, or a clerk notified the judge of a reservation, and in a moment of serendipity a post-interview recommender discusses that particular issue and, without knowing it, assuages the judge's fears). The most effective recommender call, from my experience, would be someone who knows the judge, calls the morning of or day before the interview, and gushes about the person in particularly vivid detail and with an emphasis on his/her clerk-related skills. That kind of call primes the judge and clerks to receive a candidate warmly; we've certainly hired people whose professors did just that. The worst calls are from those who don't know the judge, says basically the same thing he/she said in his/her letter, and by running his/her mouth actually says something off-putting (this does happen). Some professors also can be quite rude on the phone (perhaps without knowing it) and do some collateral damage to the candidate's application. The problem for you is that, from the perspective of a student, it is incredibly difficult to know what kind of caller the professor will be. So I would be careful about how you dispatch the professors to make calls.
I would use lolwat's questions to the clerks. I would ask whether they also had done any legal work before clerking, and how the experience helped. If you're a law student still, you might want to ask about how best to approach your 2L/3L year. I would also ask about what the clerks' favorite aspect about working with the judge.
I would research the judge, figure out his/her professional history, and ask questions about it. I would ask him/her about he/she approaches mentoring clerks after they leave.
Yeah, I don't know what you would say re: 3. My chambers would tend to ask about why you want to clerk for the particular judge or in the particular city/courthouse, not why you want to clerk in general.
Good luck!
