JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP HANDBOOK - Cornell University Law School

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OFFICE OF PUBLIC SERVICE WEB SITE The tools you need to help you create your federal and state clerkship applications can be quickly accessed via the Office of Public Service web site. Selected resources: C OSCAR, the Online System for Clerkship Application and Review: OSCAR is the single centralized resource for notice of available federal clerkships, clerkship application information, and law clerk employment information. The 2011 OSCAR system is scheduled to launch in late May, 2011. All federal judges in courts included in the Law Clerk Hiring Plan will be listed on OSCAR. Judges will be able to indicate whether they are not hiring or, if they are hiring, whether they wish to receive applications electronically or in hard copy. Judges decide whether or not to post clerkship information, and it is expected that the vast majority will. For those judges who do not post clerkship information, a notation of “no information available” will be displayed. Applicants applying to judges who want electronic submissions (well over 60% of judges) will upload their application materials through the OSCAR web site. Applicants designate the judges to whom they wish to apply. Recommenders upload their letters through OSCAR as well. These judges are able to sort and screen the applications directed to them and print only what they want to read in hard copy. C Federal Court Jurisdictional Map: Indicates geographic boundaries of the United States Courts of appeal and District Courts. • Symplicity Clerkship Module: Use this resource to create an Excel spreadsheet of mailing addresses for the federal judges to whom you are applying. This Excel file is used for your cover letter mail‐merge (the efficient way to create letters that are addressed to each individual judge). Also, faculty administrative assistants use your Excel file to create your recommendation letters. You are responsible for e‐mailing your Excel file to the appropriate administrative assistants. A note about mailing: Assistant Dean Comstock oversees a process that enables you to send your hard copy application materials via Federal Express, and at a greatly reduced price. Specific instructions will be provided over the summer. C Judicial Nominations and Confirmations: The Senate Judiciary Committee’s official web page. For the current congressional session, click on links at the bottom of the page. C Judicial Nominations and Confirmations (Michigan): Provides current mailing addresses for nominated and recently‐confirmed judges. C Judicial Nominations and Confirmations (Yale): Provides a database of federal judicial nominations and confirmations, status and address information, and links to other nominations resources. 14 | P age
C Almanac of the Federal Judiciary: Located on Westlaw, this resource profiles circuit, district and key bankruptcy and magistrate judges, providing biographical information, noteworthy rulings, lawyer evaluations and media coverage. C Leadership Libraries: A series of “Yellow Books” that serve as a massive research database. The Judicial Yellow Book contains information on all federal judges and as well as the judges from each state’s highest court. C LexisNexis: Useful for researching judges’ published rulings. C Clerkship Notification Blog: Clerkship applicants from all law schools can post information about the judges’ stage in the hiring process. C State Court Judges Spreadsheet: Provides names and addresses of a variety of state court judges in Excel format. C Guide to State Judicial Clerkships: A state‐by‐state guide on judicial clerkship application procedures and deadlines. C National Center for State Courts: Provides judicial branch links for each state, as well as state court structure charts. PRINT RESOURCES Appendix O lists judicial clerkship resources found in the Office of Public Service library and the law library. Major resources include the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary (mentioned above, also found on Westlaw) and The American Bench ‐ Judges of the Nation. This contains biographies of over 17,000 federal, state and local court judges, arranged by state, with an alphabetical locator index for all judges. FEDERAL CLERKSHIP APPLICATION TIME LINE GETTING ORGANIZED As noted previously, the 2011 Federal Judges Law Clerk Hiring Plan specifies Tuesday, September 6, 2011 as the first date federal clerkship applications may be received in chambers. This plan was formulated by the members of the Ad Hoc Committee on Law Clerk Hiring, co‐chaired by the Hon. Harry T. Edwards and the late Hon. Edward R. Becker. The judicial clerkship committee strongly recommends that class of 2012 students seeking federal clerkships should plan for their applications to arrive in chambers on the specified date. Remember that if you cannot get your materials together by the recommended date, it is still worth applying! Some judges will be selecting over the course of the year, so there are opportunities to pursue even if you cannot get your applications out by this date. Regardless of what percentage of your application packets will ultimately be delivered electronically or by mail, there are steps you need to begin taking now to prepare yourself 15 | P age
Page 1: JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP HANDBOOK CORNELL
Page 4 and 5: Leadership Libraries 15 LexisNexis
Page 7 and 8: INTRODUCTION Clerking for a judge o
Page 9 and 10: valuable. (For further discussion,
Page 11 and 12: positions as Atemporary,” meaning
Page 13 and 14: JUDICIAL FELLOWS PROGRAM Following
Page 15 and 16: above, as one application. SELECTIN
Page 17 and 18: Grades and Other Credentials You do
Page 19: Cornell University’s Internationa
Page 23 and 24: STAFF ATTORNEY AND PRO SE LAW CLERK
Page 25 and 26: COVER LETTER The same concerns abou
Page 27 and 28: WRITING SAMPLES Your writing sample
Page 29 and 30: Although there are no guarantees ab
Page 31: FEDERAL COURT WORKPLACE ISSUES In a
Page 34 and 35: Academic Record What are your grade
Page 36: Jeffrey S. Lehman Chief Judge Frank
Page 40 and 41: torney’s pay rate is comparable t
Page 42 and 43: Circuit and Contact Information 5th
Page 45 and 46: Applying to everyone in October sou
Page 53 and 54: Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito,
Page 55 and 56: APPENDIX K JUDGES WHO HIRED CORNELL
Page 59 and 60: JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP RESOURCES APPEND
Page 61 and 62: types of clerkships, how to build a
Page 63 and 64: The Honorable XXX United States Dis
Page 65 and 66: The Honorable XXX Supreme Court Sta
Page 67: Judge Frederick Block U.S. District

JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP HANDBOOK - Cornell University Law School

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