District Court Profile: SDNY

Federal district court clerkships come in all shapes and sizes.  Arguably the most popular, prestigious, and busy are those on New York's Southern District, commonly known as "SDNY."  The district court's website has this to say:

Once a 'leisurely one man court,' the Southern District of New York currently has forty-four United States District Judges and fifteen United States Magistrate Judges presiding over the highest civil caseload in the country.  These forty-six men and thirteen women determine matters ranging from admiralty business, the backbone of the Court’s work in early years, to anti-trust prosecutions, patent, copyright, trademark, anti-racketeering, income tax, and violations of Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) laws.  Occasionally, one or more of the District (Article III) Judges of the Southern District of New York may sit by designation on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Due to the heavy workload and complexity of the docket, many SDNY judges prefer to hire clerks with a post-law school experience working in a firm or government agency.  Some require this.  Applicants should consult OSCAR to get a sense of which judges fall into these categories.  The upshot is that SDNY clerkships can be quite difficult for students to get; the increasingly common "work-clerk-work" approach may be the only way in the door for some.

Three SDNY judges -- District Judges Karas and Nathan, and Magistrate Judge Freeman -- are currently hiring for 2013-14 on OSCAR.  Without further ado, here is contact information for each SDNY District and Magistrate Judge:

Chief District Judge Loretta A. Preska
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse
500 Pearl Street, Room 2220
New York NY 10007-1312

District Judge Deborah A. Batts
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse
500 Pearl Street, Room 2510
New York NY 10007-1312

The list continues after the jump . . .

Read more »

The Hiring Plan: what it is, and why is it imploding.

Just a few years ago, a group of federal judges introduced the law clerk hiring plan.  This proposal -- commonly referred to as the "hiring plan," or just "the plan" -- set standardized dates for clerkship applications, interviews, and hiring.  It was designed to bring order to what had become absolute chaos.  Prior to the plan, many judges were hiring clerks as early as their 1L summer -- well before applicants had built up a meaningful law school record.  Many judges felt they had to do this, lest their competitors snatch up all the best talent.  That impulse drove hiring to occur earlier and earlier in a vicious cycle.

The plan is, and always was voluntary for all involved.  By its own terms, it applies only to law students applying to clerk the year after graduation.  Alumni are not covered.  Nor are students applying to clerk in a year other than the year after graduation.  Most law schools, and many federal judges, opted in when the plan was first announced.

Initially, a small number of judges declined to follow the plan.  Some of these judges decided the plan put them at a disadvantage -- for instance by favoring judges in major metropolitan areas, or on the coasts.  Others simply rejected the notion that they should be constrained in their hiring practices.  These "off-plan" judges put applicants in a bind.  On the one hand, law schools were telling their students not to apply off-plan (enforcing the rule by withholding letters of recommendation).  On the other hand, the off-plan judges were still somehow finding 2Ls to hire.  

What started out as a trickle has now become a torrent.  (more after the jump)

Read more »

Does your school publish a clerkship listing?

Some law schools publish a list of the clerkships obtained by their graduates.  Some do this annually -- for instance, the University of Virginia's 2009-10 term list is here.  Others maintain an omnibus list for all years, like this one from George Mason.  These lists are helpful to students trying to determine which judges tend to hire from their school.  And they help us verify and expand our historical hiring data.

If your school maintains such a list, or if you know of one from another school, please let us know (with a link!) in the comments.  Thanks!

Frequently Asked Questions (by J.)

Frequently Asked Questions

by J.

Every year, a new crop of 2Ls jumps into the clerkship application process.  This post covers a few of the questions they tend to ask most frequently.  It was last updated on April 11, 2012.

1.  What are my chances at landing an Article III clerkship?

The answer depends on many factors, most notably your school's rank, its history of sending clerks to Article III judges, your GPA and class rank, the strength of your resume, writing sample, and letters of recommendation, and whether you are on Law Review.  The hiring process can be very quirky, so chance plays a significant role as well.  The best way to identify your own chances is to join the legal employment forum at top-law-schools.com.

2.  Is a clerkship "worth it"?

Again, the answer depends on your individual circumstances -- your career goals, practice interests, personality, and background.  For many students, only some clerkships are worthwhile.  Students going into transactional practices, for instance, generally do not benefit much (professionally, at least) from a district court clerkship.  But they might get a significant boost from a year spent on the Delaware Court of Chancery (details on that particular clerkship here). The People's Therapist offers a different take here.
Read more »

Sample Cover Letters

Below are five sample cover letters, each adapted from actual cover letters sent by clerkship applicants in prior cycles.  Example 1 is the most common kind used.  Each sample is followed by commentary on the letter's strengths and weaknesses.


Example #1: The Short Letter

[Applicant's name and contact information in header]

[Date]

[Address Block]

Dear Judge [Name]:

I am a rising third year student at [law school name] and an editor of the [school name] Law Review. I am very interested in clerking for you in the 2013-14 term.

I have enclosed my resume, law school transcript, and writing sample. The writing sample is a recent case comment on the [omitted] Circuit decision in [case name], which appeared in the [month/year] issue of the Law Review. You will be receiving, under separate cover, letters of recommendation from the following individuals:

Professor [Name] [Law School] [Address 1] [Address 2] [Telephone #]

Professor [Name] [Law School] [Address 1] [Address 2] [Telephone #]

Professor [Name] [Law School] [Address 1] [Address 2] [Telephone #]

Please let me know if I can provide any further information.  Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

[Name]

Commentary: This is a very well-executed "short" cover letter. Most Harvard Law School students use a similar letter as their template.  The applicant's contact information is easy to find, right at the top of the letter. All of the key information appears, including recommender contact information, in an organized, straightforward fashion. Plus, the letter gives some brief background on the writing sample. This is the best template to use when you have no particular ties to a judge. You could even use it if you did have ties, by customizing the second sentence in the body.  The main drawback to the short format is that it often comes across as sterile.


Example #2: The Second Clerkship

[Applicant's name and contact information in header]

[Date]

[Address block]

Dear Judge [Name]:

I am a third-year student at [law school] and would like to be considered for a clerkship in your chambers for the next available term.

I will clerk for [Judge Name] in the District of [jurisdiction] during the 2012-13 term and hope to clerk for a circuit judge the following year. I am particularly interested in working in [city] a second year, as my family has close ties to the area.  Please find enclosed my resume, official transcript, writing sample, and four letters of recommendation. The writing sample is my note, which the [school] Law Review will publish this year. It shows that [brief characterization of what the note covers].

The recommendation letters are from three professors and one practitioner: [Professor 1 Name], [Phone #], for whom I worked as both a research assistance and a teaching assistant; [Professor 2 name], [Phone #], who taught [class name]; [Professor 3 name], [Phone #], who taught a seminar on [issue]; and [AUSA name], [Phone #], for whom I worked in the United States Attorney's Office for the [jurisdiction].

If you would like any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me at [phone #] or [e-mail]. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Sincerely,

[Name]

Commentary: This is a format used by people with one clerkship when applying for a second.  All of the essentials are easy to find.  Note that the applicant's first clerkship should be included in his or her resume.  The most common format for such listings is:

The Hon. [Name], U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Pasadena, CA
Law Clerk, anticipated August 2012 - August 2013

Three more letters -- including two that illustrate common mistakes made by applicants -- appear after the jump.
Read more »

Great site to keep track of nominees

For those of you tracking the progress of recent nominees, http://judicialnominations.org/ provides a comprehensive listing by circuit and district.

Welcome

This site's purpose is simple: provide people with up-to-date information about hiring for Article III clerkships.  This information will include an overview of the on-plan and off-plan hiring processes; sample cover letters; lists of off-plan judges and feeder judges; contact information for paper applications, and data on judges' past hiring trends.  In other words, everything your school's career services office should provide, but does not.  User submissions will play a key role, so please comment any time you have something to add -- particularly with respect to hiring data.  Information from comments will periodically be integrated into the court pages.

The site is a work in progress.  For now, it contains one page for each of the federal courts of appeals.  These pages can be accessed via links in the right-hand column.  We expect that users will add information to each using the comment feature.  In time, we hope to add additional pages for district courts as well.