Behind the Scenes of an Appellate Court: Clerkship 101

Someone posted a question asking me to describe what my experience as a clerk has been so far. I think if you ask any clerk about their clerkship experience, you're going to get a different story every time. Obviously my story will get better as the year goes on, but I am happy to give my take on my first month of working behind the scenes of an appellate court.

Compared to working in a firm, the first big difference is that you aren't accountable for your time (for the most part). You have plenty of work to do to keep you busy, and obviously organization helps, but you can spend as little or as long as you want on an issue. As long as you get your assignments done on time, with everything perfect, you're doing great. So, in that sense, it is like doing work for a partner or associate; on the other, it's very academic. If you like that sort of thing, you should consider doing a clerkship for a year.

For federal clerkships, I know there is a real trend in working for two or three years before going applying or doing a district court clerkship first, but if you have strong credentials, you will still be fine and still have a good shot. Only about half of the people you'll work with who will be a little older (besides the secretaries and judges). For state clerkships, I think it's a little different, but from my friends who are clerks in state courts, most are right out of law school or clerked somewhere else for a year first. In either case, you will need to have a high GPA, be or have been on a law review, and have an ability to communicate why you want to be a clerk. Once you're in the door, and have accepted your offer, the question turns to this: What's it like to be a clerk? Here's my answer. I'm sure for trial court clerks, their answers would vary.

As far as the learning curve and workload, it all depends. The first month has had some long days, and some shorter days (no golfing days yet). I think the first thing you need to pick up quick is how your judge (and your court) writes. The easiest way to do that is to find opinions that have been previously written in the same area of law that you are working on. For novel things, I usually try and pattern other well-written opinions (or at least ones that seem to be well-written). The faster you can pick up on your judge's writing style, the faster you will get to the top of the curve. Of course, you'll always have to take the edits you are given and learn from them. I would say that it's a work in progress. As far as technical stuff, get used to using short, concise sentences in the active voice.

As far as whether I think I was prepared for the clerkship when it started, I would say I was. Of course, working as an articles editor certainly helped with the bluebook aspect of things, but each court has its own nuances that you have to pick up. For the most part, courts follow the bluebook, so I would make sure that you learn as much as you can from the senior members of your law review if you have any interest in clerking. Of course, there's probably a judge in the court that is far superior to you in editing and can help you out if need be.

Would I have done anything different so far? I think it's too early to tell. Personally, I'm pretty organized, so I can schedule my work day around my assignments fairly easily. Of course, you never know what comes up that needs to be taken care of, so you have to be able to switch gears at a moment's notice. You should also be nice to all the clerks and secretaries. They have been there longer than you, and will remember you if you're good, and even more if you're a jerk.

Is my judge easy to work with? Yes. The most important thing you are looking to get out of the clerkship is mentoring, so if you're personable, it should be easy to get along with most judges. Some judges are more personable than others though, so every clerkship will be different. I'm sure some judges are harder to work with than others, and that's the nature of the working world anyway. I think you just have to hope to luck out. For the most part, you should. One of the most rewarding things you'll get out of the clerkship is the conversations with the judge about the law.

Will you learn a lot? Absolutely. If anything, you'll get an appreciation for how the court thinks about things. You'll also see how ... diverse lawyer's writing styles are. I think you'll be, let's say, surprised at the range of briefs you'll get. You'll be a better writer by the end of your clerkship, that's a guarantee.

I think that's enough for now. The only other thing I would say is important is to get along with all your co-clerks. Dating them is another post for another day. Either way, they are in the same boat with you and pretty much the extent of your social circle for this year of your life.

I'm happy to write about any other questions. Post away.

Tags: clerkship experience