Clerkshipship Advice Roundup

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Over the weekend, many readers and clerkship applicants opined that the federal hiring plan is, once again, FUBAR.

However, helpful advice for applicants also came in over the comments board and email. In anticipation of the today’s noontime green flag, we bring you the best advice from your fellow ATL readers on how to handle the clerkship process.

Don’t answer the phone, ever. A tipster wrote:

What you want to do is let the calls go to voicemail and then set up your interviews in order of your preference. That way, if you get an exploding offer in the room at the end of the first interview, it will be with the judge that you really want.

But don’t be an idiot and change your cell phone. One tipster that thankfully overcame a massive brain freeze reports:

Calls were supposed to go out on the 11th, and on the 10th, I finally decided that my old cell phone was a POS and was going to use my summer associate $$$ for an iPhone. As the Fall progressed, I kept having trouble calling certain folks with my new phone. I could call them, they couldn’t call me. Finally, I figure out that when I switched phones, there was a glitch that prevented a certain percentage of my calls from actually reaching me. D’oh.

Remember: the people you’re replacing don’t know their don’t know their Lexis from their Nexis. As one commenter points out:

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Don’t get discouraged. If the phone doesn’t ring on the first day, that’s not always a bad thing…. Us clerks just got on the job and we don’t want to start looking for our replacements just yet. I’m still trying to figure out the phones.

More tips from the readers after the jump.


It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Numerous people pointed out that their judges didn’t start interviewing in earnest until February.

When you snag an interview, don’t just ramble on about the wonderful experience of clerking. The more specifics, the better. This should be obvious, but it’s a basic tip to remember.

Don’t prestige-whore yourself straight into misery. The most prestigious judge / clerkship may not be the best fit for you. From an email:

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Depending on your judge and their workload, you could find yourself putting in nearly the same number of hours as a BigLaw associate for a fraction of the pay. If you cast your geographic net wide, you could find yourself in a strange city. Relationships can fail and friends will be area codes, if not time zones away. What might be best for your professional development might not be best for your mental health.

Good luck, clerkship applicants. Whatever happens, it can’t be as bad as being a member of the 2008 summer associate class, right?

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