Summer Judicial Internships?

[NeverTrustKlingons]

Hey buddies,

I've found listings for basically every other sort of summer job -- anyone have the scoop on these?  Are you just meant to send unsolicited cover letters + resumes to judges, or...? 

Thanks for any advice.

[Jumboshrimps]

A judicial internship will almost certainly be arranged by one of your school's professors. Check your course catalog.

[thorc954]

A judicial internship will almost certainly be arranged by one of your school's professors. Check your course catalog.

that advice makes absolutely no sense at all.  professors dont arrange judicial internships for you, at least not at the majority of schools.


There are a few approaches you can take for finding these judges.  For federal judges, I just sent out unsolicited male to every federal judge in a location I wanted to work in.  Many werent hiring, but it was easier to just do that.  In addition, I found listings for the local judges that were hiring on simplicity and applied to those as well.

Sometimes, at some schools, your career development office will have a list of responses from judges (do to the CDO's inquiry) regarding who was hiring and who was not hiring summer interns.  I found, because I wanted to apply to so many judges, that it was easier just to send a mass mail and let them throw out the application if they didnt want to hire.

Anyway, good luck with it.  Most of my friends took my approach and many got really prestigious federal internships (SDNY, Court of Federal Claims, Federal district courts, etc). 

[martin55]

I sent out 37 envelopes with a resume, cover letter, writing sample, and list of references to federal judges. I only received one interview response along with several rejections, but the one interview was enough to get the job done.

[none]

There is something to be said for networking though.  I was volunteering on my own time with a local legal aid group doing client intake.  One of the lawyers I was working with asked me about my plans for 1L summer and when she found out I wanted to get a judicial internship at the trial level (because I think it's the most fun), she gave me the names of five judges to apply to and told me what they were looking for.  I targeted my resumes to only those five.  Got two interviews and one offer, which I accepted.  The internship was freakin' awesome. 

So you never know where opportunities will come from.

[poiuyt]

So, when you send a resume to a judge, should you include a writing sample? Or, will they request the writing sample when they interview you? And a brief is much preferred to a memo, right?

[thorc954]

So, when you send a resume to a judge, should you include a writing sample? Or, will they request the writing sample when they interview you? And a brief is much preferred to a memo, right?

I didnt send writing samples or transcripts with my resumes when I applied.  Those that wanted them requested them.  It may be a good idea to do such though (well, I think a self prepared grade sheet is equivalent).  I was afraid that, with the writing sample, it would be too thick and I would need additional postage.  I didnt want to have to worry, but I was applying to a lot of judges when I did.

They will request if you dont send it and they want you.

I wouldnt say there is much of a distinction between a brief and a memo with regards to what they prefer.  In the position, you will probably mostly draft memos for the judges, so a memo might even be better.

my problem with briefs is the length of them.  You want your writing sample to be short (5-7 pages) and it is hard to omit sections of the brief (mine are between 20 and 40 pages) without it losing almost every sense of coherency.  It is much simpler to just use a short memo.

[poiuyt]

^ Thanks for the response 
How about other people....did you include the writing sample with your mailing or not? And what writing sample did you use?

[Budlaw]

A judicial internship will almost certainly be arranged by one of your school's professors. Check your course catalog.

that advice makes absolutely no sense at all.  professors dont arrange judicial internships for you, at least not at the majority of schools.

Jumboshrimps was probably referring to a judicial externship. These are arranged by professors and they are taken for credit. I've done an judicial externship during a semester, and I'd recommend doing this instead of an internship over the summer. Its the same thing, except you're actually getting credit for the externship. Further, you free up your 1L summer to either do paid employment or study abroad.

But to each his own.

[thorc954]

my school gives credit for judicial internships taken over the summer as well, which is great, but im sure not all do that.