More From Professor Amy Chua About Her Clerkship Counseling

The past few months have been difficult ones for Professor Amy Chua, the prominent Yale Law School faculty member most famous outside academia as the author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (affiliate link).

In July, she wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed about Judge Brett Kavanaugh that generated significant (and perhaps surprising) controversy. In late August, she was admitted to the emergency room as a result of a massive internal infection; she underwent major surgery, then spent three weeks in the hospital. (She is now thankfully out of the hospital, but won’t be returning to the classroom this semester).

Earlier this week, Professor Chua came under fire for allegedly advising law students applying to clerk for Judge Kavanaugh that it was “not an accident” that his female law clerks all “looked like models” — and she would counsel students on optimal attire for Kavanaugh interviews. In a brief statement to The Guardian, which covered the story, Professor Chua wrote that Judge Kavanaugh’s “first and only litmus test in hiring has been excellence. He hires only the most qualified clerks, and they have been diverse as well as exceptionally talented and capable.”

Today we received a more detailed statement from Professor Chua, pushing back strongly on the earlier reports and outlining what she does tell students when it comes to the clerkship process:

Everything that is being said about the advice I give to students applying to Brett Kavanaugh — or any judge — is outrageous, 100% false, and the exact opposite of everything I have stood for and said for the last fifteen years.

I always tell students to prep insanely hard — that substance is the most important thing. I advise them to read every opinion, including dissents, the judge has ever written as well as important recent cases from the circuit and Supreme Court. I tell them to review all the black-letter courses they’ve taken and to be prepared to answer hard questions about their writing sample. I tell them to be courteous to everyone, including the staff and clerks. I advise students, male and female, to dress professionally – not too casually – and to avoid inappropriate clothing. I remind them that they are interviewing with a member of the judiciary.

As a former law clerk and author of a clerkship-focused book (affiliate link), I’m often asked for advice about applying for clerkships. I agree with pretty much all of Professor Chua’s sage counsel (although I might add the qualifier that, depending on how long a judge has been on the bench, it might not be realistic to read every opinion she has ever written; in that case, focus on the most important ones — en banc opinions, opinions in cases that wound up before the Supreme Court, opinions that received a lot of media coverage or scholarly attention, etc.).

Back to Professor Chua’s statement:

I always try my best to be frank and transparent, and to hold students to the highest professional standard, and every year for the last decade I have been invited by affinity groups like Yale Law Women, the Black Law Students Association, and Outlaws to host clerkship advice sessions. My record as a clerkship mentor, especially for women and minorities, is among the things I’m most proud of in my life.

Thanks to Professor Chua for reaching out, and best wishes to her for a swift and strong recovery.

UPDATE (9/23/2018, 11:05 a.m.): Here are additional thoughts from Professor Eugene Volokh on Professor Chua’s statement.

Earlier:

• ‘No Accident’ Brett Kavanaugh’s Female Law Clerks ‘Looked Like Models,’ Yale Professor Told Students
• Controversial Yale Law School Professor Hospitalized, Out For The Semester

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David Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].