Federal Judges Increasingly Look For Clerks With Experience

It use to be that one of the coveted positions some students looked forward to upon graduating from law school was clerking for a federal judge.  A year of so with the Judge would teach them a lot and would allow them to either move up to an appellate clerkship or a good Big Law, in-house or law school position.  But, according the ABA and others, those days might be coming to an end as federal judges are increasing looking at lawyers who have a few years of experience under their belts.  The dynamic seems to be changing where now associates at Big Law are seeking to put their career's on hold after already entering the legal workplace in order to clerk for a judge.  And, why should this not be best?  The problem with newly minted law students is that they are some of the smartest people in the room, but they lack a sense of application.  We have all experienced problems when federal judges change law clerks.  That experience might not change to some extend, but where we use to see a total lack of comprehension when a newly minted lawyer takes over in a judges office, we might see less of it now.  Much like learning geometry does not give you a comprehensive view of the building trade, learning the bankruptcy laws, for example, does not give you an accurate understanding of how it operates withing the law.  So, would it not be best to seek the assistance of a lawyer who has a few years working in a bankruptcy practice, for example.  This is probably the best approach.

Comments

[David Fuller]

Honestly, I'd have been a much better clerk if I had had some experience. I knew the theory behind bankruptcy law pretty cold, but the actual practice, no idea. I wasn't an effective clerk until I learned how bankruptcy law is practiced. By the time I learned that, my year was almost up, and a new clerk was coming in straight from law school.

I'd say the one area where real world experience doesn't matter is clerking for the US Court of Appeals Those courts have staff clerks that handle all the routine procedural stuff and the judicial clerks only really do research and drafting on the theory behind the appeal.