The Faculty Lounge

Law Clerks, Confidentiality, and David Lat's "Supreme Ambitions"

Out here in the great Pacific NW, the Portland outpost of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just had a fantastic book club discussion of David Lat's new novel, "Supreme Ambitions," hosted by none other than Judge Susan Graber.  As the Washington Post noted, "Supreme Ambitions" is "an engrossing page-turner that focuses on the ... subject of federal judges and their law clerks."  It's also a thriller, a love story, and tale about an ethical quandry--all wrapped up in one extremely diverting novel!

Among his other pursuits, Lat is founder and managing editor of Above the Law, and thus tightly plugged into the sturm und drung of being a newly graduated lawyer in the 21st century.    This, combined with a tremendous variety of ages and experience at the book club luncheon (ranging from fresh-faced law clerks to almost 30 years on the federal bench), made for a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion about the topics in the book.

So as not to give away the plot of the book (which I highly recommend), I wanted to focus on one topic that sparked a good discussion at the book club meeting:  the question of confidentiality.  Judicial clerkships are an interesting beast, yoking the appointed or elected judges to brand new law graduates, and giving these law clerks unprecedented access to confidential information and influence over how cases are decided.  How strong is the ethos of confidentiality in this atmosphere?   If there is potential wrongdoing by a judge, is it the law clerk's duty to report it?  Or are law clerks simply extensions of the judge, not authorized in their own right to do anything without the imprimatur of the court?

We've had law clerk confidentiality leaks before, of course.  Edward Lazarus, a former Blackmun clerk, famously--and controversially-- published an entire book about the "secrets" of the Supreme Court in Closed Chambers.  As the blurb for the book itself notes, this caused a "firestorm of controversy," with an argument about confidentiality and ethical violation pitted against an argument about openness and transparency in the justice system.

This last point, in my opinion, is why both lawyers and laymen have a constant fascination with what goes on inside the judiciary.  Much of American adjudication takes place behind closed doors.  Any  insider account is all the more thrilling because the general public knows so little about the machinations of decision-making.   This is particularly true in criminal justice, where we have gone from a system of jury trials to a system of plea bargains, shifting the adjudications from public to private.   The public simply desires to peer behind the alabaster columns and underneath their robes, whether it's the local judiciary or the Supreme Court (which still refuses to allow cameras for oral arguments!)

In any case, if you want to have a captivating read that also gives you the inside scoop on the exciting life of a 9th Circuit law clerk in glorious Pasadena, CA (home to my beloved judge A. Wallace Tashima) , be sure to pick up Supreme Ambitions!

Law Schools Ranked By Federal Clerkship Placement Rates

Derek Muller has created an interesting ranking of law schools - top to bottom - based on the percentage of the class landing federal clerkships (2011-13).  What's most intriguing about this list isn't that there is small cadre of schools that vastly overplace in these positions, vis-a-vis the rest of the competition (yes, I'm talking about you Yale, Stanford and...UC Irvine?).  Rather, it's the stories that go on further down the ranks that are more intriguing.

Dominant regional schools - irrespective of US News ranking or peer surveys - can place decently when it comes to Federal clerkships.  For example, Montana, Arkansas, Richmond, LSU, Mississippi, and Memphis, among others, all put a good number of people in these jobs. 

On the other hand, schools that are well ranked but non-dominant regionally (think BU or Wash U) didn't excel in this list.  And schools that got a big boost from their mergers with prestigious state universities (think Penn State and Michigan State) performed more in line with their historical identities.

As you hear prospective students debating whether to go to Columbia or NYU to maximize chances for a Federal clerkship, you might tell them to Alabama or Georgia - they'll have just as a good a shot.

H/T Paul Caron

Judge Gould on overcoming obstacles

Here's an inspiring video about the Ninth Circuit judge I clerked for, the Honorable Ronald M. Gould.   He was a great judge to work for, and this is both a wonderful testament to his strength and perseverance in the face of MS and a reminder of how much each of us can accomplish.  

The Judicial Clerkship Hiring Frenzy

Story here.  (Hat tip to colleague Matt Sawchak.)

Query the judge's response if an applicant asked for a week to ten days to ponder an offer.   Faculty hiring committees typically give a candidate a brief response time, as do law review editors to authors.  Why the difference in treatment?

And would any clerkship applicant play the "trade up" game (akin to what happens in article placement)?  Why or why not?

In Memoriam: Gladys Dimmick

Once in a while, I take advantage of having a blog to share information relevant to only a small portion of our readership.  This is one of those times.  Last week, on May 5, Gladys Lunsford Dimmick passed away.  Gladys was the secretary to Fourth Circuit Judge J. Dickson Phillips Jr., for whom several of us in the academy clerked.  Gladys was a sweet, fun, and wonderful person with the most brilliant twinkle in her eye.   She is already missed.

White House Fellows

A few days ago the White House announced the appointment of 13 incredibly talented men and women as White House Fellows.   You'll find brief bios on these outstanding individuals here, and additional information on the Program here.

I'm wondering if any law profs out there had the privilege of serving as White House Fellows.  Any names?

The Legal Academy and Feeder Judges

Over the weekend I joined several former and current law clerks to celebrate 25 years of distinguished judicial service by Edith H. Jones, currently the Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit.  In glancing over the roster of attendees I counted a handful of former clerks who, like me, are law professors.

So this got me wondering.  Which current judge/justice has the most clerks now teaching at ABA-accredited law schools?  Can we create a "top ten" list of feeder judges/justices into the legal academy? 

Federal Judicial Clerkship Applications Spike

 Back in May, I blogged about the coming judicicial clerkship application crush.  I predicted that there would be a surge of applications from those many highly qualified students facing deferred offers from top shelf firms.  This analysis wasn't rocket science, but I hadn't heard anyone else make this claim...and I was a bit worried I'd later be proved an idiot.

Alas, it now appears my prediction was right.  According to BLT, there was a 42% increase in the number of  people applying online for Federal clerkships this year.  We don't have any data about the effects of this shift.  I'm wondering which schools absorbed the biggest impact of this brutally competitive market:  the super elite law schools - and particularly those students who aren't at the top of the class - or the strong regional schools that normally snag local clerkships, but might now be losing these slots to super elite schools. 

Does anybody have a sense of this - even anecdotally?

Mid-week Links

UCLA Law Dean Michael Schill to become dean at Chicago Law, effective January 1, 2010.  Leiter gloats; Bainbridge mourns.  (See Dan's post on this here).

The Boston Globe reports that some professors are giving their courses a sexier name to increase student enrollment.  Historiann and Daniel Solove have begun renaming the curriculum accordingly.  I’ll give my courses a shot as well, though I’m even worse at course titles than article titles:

Financial Derivatives – I’ll Stop The World And Melt With You?

Taboo Trades & Forbidden Markets -- already a pretty sexy title, I have to say.  But perhaps Selling Bodies, Their Fluids, and Their Parts might be an improvement?  (I think not, sometimes less is more).

Will greed still be good?  Oliver Stone making the Wall Street sequel.

Al Roth on federal judicial law clerk hiring and its periodic unraveling.

Vanity Fair on the TARP funds.

Law Librarian Blog on the first U.S. internet addiction center.

Also from Law Librarian Blog High Profile American Female JDs in Forbes' 100 Most Powerful Women.

And from Law Is Cool, Blawg Review #228, which is a clever mashup of 100 blawg posts.  

Some advice and a gift for recent (unemployed) law graduates

First, I'd like to thank the editors at Faculty Lounge for inviting me to guest blog. I've always enjoyed this blog and I am honored to be a guest blogger. I plan to offer a variety of posts on topics ranging from the legal job market (this post) to the dynamics of peer review. Well, enough with introductions - on to the post!

If you graduated last May and are not employed yet, then I have a pretty good idea of what your life is like right now. You possibly have a part time or full time non-law job and are either living on a string with roommates who await back-rent or have moved back in with your parents. You watch too much syndicated television at odd hours and the email in-box, post office box, and telephone message machine are no longer your friends. You avoid contact with people who will inevitably ask you how your job search is going and sheepishly duck into your law school’s career service office to leaf through the new job postings.

Okay, that last one might be a relic of someone who suffered this fate a good while back. I imagine that today, most of the career service job postings are online. But, much like Bill Clinton, I do “feel your pain.” That’s right, your guest blogger and member of the ivory tower was an unemployed law graduate. In the paragraphs  that follow, I offer some consolation and advice for the recent unemployed law graduate. I also offer a gift. If Elton John’s gift was his song, then my gift to you, recent unemployed law graduate, is a set of pathetic and awkward stories of my interviewing during these days of post-graduate unemployment.

The Coming Judicial Clerkship Application Crush

Skadden Arps welcomed their summer associates this week.  According to ATL, there was a lot of anxiety in this summer class as they learned that offers would be forthcoming to those workers who earned them.  (Isn't it weird that, in this business, the notion that one would need to earn an offer sets off alarms?)  To quell anxiety, partners reassured the summer staffers that there were plenty of offers to go around.  With one caveat: the jobs won't open until 2011.  That means these eager members of the Class of 2010 will need to find something else to do for a year.  And if the Skadden folk won't start until 2011, something tells me that there will be a ton of summer associates receving similar offers. Hundreds of the best and brightest law grads from top law schools who will graduate directly into a one year sabbatical. 

You know what that means: today's brillian rising 3L needs a one year long job that starts immediately after graduation.  And there's one position that fits that requirement perfectly: the (one year) judicial clerkship. 

True enough, many of the folks headed to the elite firms were already planning on seeking a clerkship.  Many - but probably not most.  There are the older grads who just want to start their careers already.  The poorer grads who need to start dealing with loans.  And all of the transactional types - corporate, tax, and T&E folks, to name a few - who accept clerkships at far lower rates than their litigation colleagues.  But you can be sure of one thing: most of these individuals would rather take a moderately-paid, high-status job for a year than sling lowfat bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches at the local Starbucks.

Come this fall, federal and state judges are going to be flooded with highly qualified law graduates seeking both a learning experience and a chance to burn the clock.  This will have a number of consequences.  First, I imagine that the surge will  make it much tougher for students at non-elite law schools to score clerkships.  Like it or not, a large number of judges prefer to hire strong graduates of elite law grads.  If this cohort doubles in size, that's inevitably going to burn up some of the slots typically allocated to regional law grads.  (In fact, it may put even more presure on strong - but not superelite - law schools because judges may feel particular pressure or motivation to hold slots for grads of their preferred local schools.)