Questions about California Supreme Court Forum

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Questions about California Supreme Court

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Jan 27, 2024 4:13 pm

I have a few questions about clerking on the California Supreme court.

1) Is it safe to say that, on average, expect the same level of competitiveness as 9th?
2) More specifically, how competitive are Liu or Kruger? And what are they like as bosses?
3) How heavy is the docket compared to COA and what does it look like?
4) My plan long term is to practice in California. I know clerking in in SSC will almost certainly be beneficial for that. But curious how much weight CA SSC holds outside of California? Say, in DC or NY.

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Re: Questions about California Supreme Court

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Jan 27, 2024 8:04 pm

This is from a NALP state clerkship guide that Berkeley has on its website:

The Justices of the California Supreme Court generally do not hire term law clerks, except in a few rare cases. Justice Cuellar, Justice Kruger, and Justice Liu often hire term law clerks, however, these positions are extremely competitive. The Justices tend to hire clerks with previous clerkship experience - and sometimes hire clerks without a previous clerkship but only those who will bring at least one year of post-graduate practice experince. The Justices tend to hire 2-3 years in advance of the term.

Anonymous User
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Re: Questions about California Supreme Court

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jan 28, 2024 2:38 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Jan 27, 2024 4:13 pm
I have a few questions about clerking on the California Supreme court.

1) Is it safe to say that, on average, expect the same level of competitiveness as 9th?
2) More specifically, how competitive are Liu or Kruger? And what are they like as bosses?
3) How heavy is the docket compared to COA and what does it look like?
4) My plan long term is to practice in California. I know clerking in in SSC will almost certainly be beneficial for that. But curious how much weight CA SSC holds outside of California? Say, in DC or NY.
Liu seemed on par with feeders for hiring credentials from my school - LR + top grades + other shit

Anonymous User
Posts: 428568
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Questions about California Supreme Court

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jan 28, 2024 1:24 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Jan 27, 2024 4:13 pm
I have a few questions about clerking on the California Supreme court.

1) Is it safe to say that, on average, expect the same level of competitiveness as 9th?
2) More specifically, how competitive are Liu or Kruger? And what are they like as bosses?
3) How heavy is the docket compared to COA and what does it look like?
4) My plan long term is to practice in California. I know clerking in in SSC will almost certainly be beneficial for that. But curious how much weight CA SSC holds outside of California? Say, in DC or NY.
Try to see if you can get a CA SSC and 9th cir. combination. Best of both worlds and makes you unique. Anecdotally I know a few people who have done SSC and circuit clerkships and it makes them stand up and can be helpful. Prestige of federal circuit plus you can be the go to person on a state because unlikely a ton of other people will have the SSC clerkship.

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