An Important Message for 1Ls Scrambling for Firm Jobs:

[thorc954]

hahaha, awesome by the end of the summer, you will be able to lexis yourself all the time... it doesnt get much better then that.

[gershonw]

hahaha, awesome by the end of the summer, you will be able to lexis yourself all the time... it doesnt get much better then that.

lexis included the names of clerks that DRAFTED the opinion??...

two questions:
1. really?
2. why?  last time i checked.the judge was the one with the authority...its bad enough that clerks influence their thinking at all...putting their names on opinions is just silly

[thorc954]

1. no
2. yea, its weird that that clerks have any influence, but it would be impossible for the judge to do it all on their own if you think of the amount of cases coming through the courts.

What I meant was that you would be able to lexis briefs that you wrote.  you wouldnt have your name on it, but its a cool feeling when stuff you wrote is in a legal database.

[gershonw]

1. no
2. yea, its weird that that clerks have any influence, but it would be impossible for the judge to do it all on their own if you think of the amount of cases coming through the courts.

What I meant was that you would be able to lexis briefs that you wrote.  you wouldnt have your name on it, but its a cool feeling when stuff you wrote is in a legal database.

oh ok got it

[JobInquiry]

Every court gets a lot of routine questions.  A judge will take the more challenging cases and work on them him/herself, and farm out the simpler cases to clerks. I don't think any opinion goes out without being read by a judge to check that it's OK.  If it's a routine question, there's really no big disadvantage to having clerks do the work and then check if s/he has done it correctly.

[gershonw]

Every court gets a lot of routine questions.  A judge will take the more challenging cases and work on them him/herself, and farm out the simpler cases to clerks. I don't think any opinion goes out without being read by a judge to check that it's OK.  If it's a routine question, there's really no big disadvantage to having clerks do the work and then check if s/he has done it correctly.

i guess drafting isnt the real problem i guess...(because the judges basically tell you what to write..after they hold conference)

but would be concerned that clerks get to influence the thoughts of the judge before the case (particularly at trial level where theres one judge and no conference)


in fed district court this has to be a huge problem...you have federal jurisdiction being expanded more and more in civil cases and with more and more regulation..plus the fact that the # of fed crimes were increase by a huge percentage in the last 20 years..but the number of judge hasnt increased with it....

the judges want higher pay..but the real problem is their caseload

[JobInquiry]

But the judge has much more experience than the clerk. The clerk may present the judge with a wrong view, or a one-sided view of the situation, but the judge will see through that.

A former supreme-court clerk who gave a talk at my school got a question about this. His answer (paraphrased): "At the beginning I thought I had a lot of influence, because the Justice always seemed to agree with what I said. But I found soon enough that in reality I had no influence at all. If the Justice had a different opinion, I could say what I wanted, but I wasn't going to change his mind."

[gershonw]

But the judge has much more experience than the clerk. The clerk may present the judge with a wrong view, or a one-sided view of the situation, but the judge will see through that.

A former supreme-court clerk who gave a talk at my school got a question about this. His answer (paraphrased): "At the beginning I thought I had a lot of influence, because the Justice always seemed to agree with what I said. But I found soon enough that in reality I had no influence at all. If the Justice had a different opinion, I could say what I wanted, but I wasn't going to change his mind."

good to hear..at least on that court..

of course the SCOTUS has the luxury of only taking cases it wants to hear...

[flyaway]

One of my profs was a SCOTUS clerk, and I don't think she felt that way.  Or maybe that was generally the case, but I know there was at least one situation in which she was able to change the justice's mind about which way to vote.

[GA-fan]

As a former 1L SA, I'd like to respectfully disagree with the OP. If you know you want to work in a firm, why not try to work in a firm as a 1L? The jobs are hard to get, but if you get one, there are some big perks: 1) you get to find out earlier than your classmates if a firm is really for you. Yeah, you get a lot of fluff work as a SA, but it will be clear after three months whether you fit in at a firm and would want to work there. That way, if it's not for you, you have 2L oci to focus elsewhere (gov't honors programs, etc). For me, I decided that even though I love working at a firm, I just couldn't stand the city I thought I wanted to work and wanted to change cities for 2L. Second, even though you're working for a "big bad corporation," most SA's do a lot of pro bono work and volunteering, so you will get to feel like you're doing your part to make the world a better place. 3) It will put your resume a cut above your classmates if you work at a reputable firm 1L and decide to reinterview for 2L (assuming of course that you got an offer and didn't burn bridges with your 1L firm).

So that's my sell. Plus, the money is nice- it helped pay for my summer vacation