JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP HANDBOOK - Cornell University Law School

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Judicial Clerkship Committee for help. If you apply to judges whose chambers are geographically distant, you must make the necessary travel arrangements at your own expense. Consult the Financial Aid Office for information on Cornell=s interview loan fund. If you are offered an interview, call the other judges on that court to whom you applied and try diplomatically to arrange to meet with them while you are in the area. Or, if you travel to a distant city on other business and one of the judges to whom you applied has chambers there, you might call to ask whether the judge has begun to interview and, if so, whether he or she would like to see you. Some judges will conduct interviews by telephone with candidates who do not live nearby, and some judges are willing to conduct video interviews. The Office of Public Service has the necessary equipment and designated space for video interviewing. Contact Assistant Dean Karen Comstock or Elizabeth Peck for details. It is still the case that most judges will want to meet you in person. Interviews with judges do not follow the same somewhat typical format that you may have gotten used to in your interviews with other employers. You may speak only to the judge, or, as is more common, you may find yourself meeting with the judge=s current law clerks as well. Some judges focus on law‐related questions; some may Aquiz@ you (for instance, asking questions about recent Supreme Court decisions or requiring you to respond to a legal issue in writing); some spend a great deal of time assessing your Afit@, focusing on interesting and different non‐law related aspects of your background. In any case, you will be trying to convince an individual, not a group or institution, to hire you. Be prepared to discuss anything on your resume. For example, if you listed an undergraduate thesis, spend enough time refreshing your memory that you can talk intelligently and succinctly about it: this is no time to sound as if your undergraduate education is a foggy blur. Be prepared to discuss some legal issue substantively. The judge may want to see the quality of your thinking and interaction on legal issues; after all, that is a central part of the clerk=s role. If your resume shows you have completed a journal note, a moot court competition, or a clinical course, these are obvious possibilities for substantive discussion. Be sure you have the issues well in hand. (Obviously, if you submitted a writing sample, this is another likely source of substantive discussion.) You might also collect your thoughts on some issue that intrigued you in a course or seminar, or that was presented in a recent Supreme Court case. The bottom line is simple: If the judge wants to talk substance, you=d rather it be on a topic about which you have had some time to reflect. It is a good idea to educate yourself about the judge before you interview. In addition to what might be on Symplicity, other resources include the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, the Leadership Directories’Judicial Yellow Book, and The American Bench, which contain some biographical data. Check Westlaw and Lexis for information on recent cases. 22 | P age
Although there are no guarantees about the format an individual interview will take, you should always be prepared with some questions. You will want to know how the judge assigns cases, whether the judge expects all reports in writing, and if you will have the chance to observe court proceedings. In addition to the references listed in Appendix N, good background reading that will help you in formulating questions are evaluations submitted by alumni/ae who have clerked. Log on to Symplicity (https://law‐cornell‐ csm.symplicity.com/students/index.php) and click the “clerkships” tab. Then select “clerkship evaluation.” If you do have a chance to meet with the current clerk(s), the meeting may be relatively informal. However, do not be lulled into a false sense of security: it is still part of the interview. Clerks often participate in the selection process and are often very determined to find their judge the Aright@ new clerks. If time permits, a carefully written thank‐you letter is appropriate; see Appendix Q for a good example. EXPECTATIONS ABOUT ACCEPTANCE – FEDERAL CLERKSHIPS Perhaps most importantly, you should bear in mind that the informal protocols governing offers and acceptances of clerkships are very different from those you are familiar with and relied on during the search for a position in a law firm, government agency or public interest organization. In contrast to other employers, judges have every expectation that you will accept their offer. Although judges are advised by the Judicial Conference that AGenerally, it is for the judge to determine the terms upon which an offer is extended. However, judges are encouraged not to require an applicant to accept an offer immediately without reasonable time to weigh it against other viable options that remain open to the applicant;” the reality is that judges are accustomed to deference, and many will expect you to accept their offer on the spot. Be prepared for a judge to call you with an offer. Some judges will even make an offer at the end of the interview or within a day or so thereafter. Telling a judge you will get back to him or her can, aside from costing you that offer, tarnish the Law School=s relationship with the judge and may cause the judge to pass over future Cornell applicants. Moreover, if you eventually accept the offer, having put the judge on hold can get your relationship off to a bumpy start. On occasion, your interview with the judge will convince you that clerking for him or her would clearly be unwise. The ideal course under such circumstances is to write a letter and withdraw as graciously as possible as soon as possible after the interview without indicating your unfavorable reaction to the judge. In this way you will avoid placing yourself in a position of having to refuse an offer. In a potentially awkward situation such as this, you should promptly consult with someone on the Judicial Clerkship Committee for advice on how to proceed. Because judges will expect you to accept their offer, you might try to arrange your interviews (to the limited extent possible) so that you interview first with those judges for whom you think you would most prefer to clerk. Of course, this will often be impossible, 23 | 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 and 20: Cornell University’s Internationa
Page 21 and 22: C Almanac of the Federal Judiciary:
Page 23 and 24: STAFF ATTORNEY AND PRO SE LAW CLERK
Page 25 and 26: COVER LETTER The same concerns abou
Page 27: WRITING SAMPLES Your writing sample
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

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