Differences between District & Circuit Clerkship Interviews Forum
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Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about clerkship applications and clerkship hiring. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
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Anonymous User
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Differences between District & Circuit Clerkship Interviews
I'm prepping for a forthcoming district clerkship interview with the sample questions provided by my school's career services, but the provided questions seem more targeted at circuit courts. Are there any things I should keep in mind while prepping for a district clerkship interview that are distinct from a circuit interview? Thanks!
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Barrred
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Re: Differences between District & Circuit Clerkship Interviews
Make sure you know the role/function of the district courts in the judicial system. Because of the differences between district and circuit courts, the district court interview questions might be more tailored toward ensuring that you can work in a fast-paced environment, and that you will be able to get up to speed on an area of law, decide the issue in front of you, and then immediately move on to the next case. District court clerks often don't have the luxury of having several months to research and decide an issue with the benefit of thorough and competent briefing. (If court of appeals clerks are like trauma surgeons, district court clerks are like combat medics.) You might try to ensure that your answers to questions recognize this reality.
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Anonymous User
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Re: Differences between District & Circuit Clerkship Interviews
All of my district interviews were much more behavioral than my circuit ones. I would recommend prepping the same way you would for a firm interview—know everything on your resume (and your writing sample) really well, and be ready to discuss them. Also have good answers for why you want to clerk, why this court, and why this judge. I would read a few of the judge's opinions just to get a sense of their style, or to have good answers to the aforementioned questions, but don't get bogged down in trying to read everything they've written. A judge I interned for and one judge I interviewed with both told me they really like when someone shows they have done some research into them, whether that's displayed through the questions you ask or your interweave it into answers you give. But a big part of the interview will just be gauging personality fit, so just be confident and be yourself.
The most helpful thing for my prep was always reaching out to former clerks and having a conversation with one of them. If there are no alum clerks that your clerkship office can put you in touch with, I once cold emailed a former clerk I found through googling. I always felt that gave me the best sense of what to expect, both in terms of the actual interview and the clerkship.
The most helpful thing for my prep was always reaching out to former clerks and having a conversation with one of them. If there are no alum clerks that your clerkship office can put you in touch with, I once cold emailed a former clerk I found through googling. I always felt that gave me the best sense of what to expect, both in terms of the actual interview and the clerkship.
