Best and worst judges to clerk for Forum - Page 32 (2024)

polareagle wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:21 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 08, 2021 12:12 pm

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Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 06, 2021 11:30 pm

Different anon. At least in my experience, it's mostly middle-of-the-road firms that care about 2/7/9/DC. Truly "snobby" firms know the names (and reputations) of the best circuit judges. A clerkship with Bill Pryor, Kevin Newsom, or Britt Grant (11th circuit) comes more clout than a clerkship with all save a few 7th circuit/9th circuits judges.

Pryor yes, but saying that about Grant and Newsom is absurd, they’re young and have good reputations but nothing beyond other good judges in other (often more competitive) places like Scudder, Flaum, Hamilton, Berzon, Gould, McKeown, Bress, Miller, Owen... let alone feeders and judges with considerable national renown like Dianes Sykes and Wood, Willy Fletcher, Friesland, or Sidney Thomas

I think this more recent anon has hit the nail on the head. (After all how could we forget such universally well-known legal luminaries as Scudder or Hamilton, who I've definitely for sure heard of before this very moment.) This thread is called "best and worst judges to clerk for." I think we need to rank, at the very least, all 179 active circuit judges. I'll go first.

1. Merrick Garland

Hamilton has fed to SCOTUS and, at the risk of ranking, maybe is the second most-prominent liberal judge in the Midwest after Diane Wood. Not saying much given the composition of 6/7/8, but a highly desirable clerkship and definitely not obscure. Scudder is a new appointee, so it's understandable to not be familiar with him, but if you just search his name on this forum you will find lots of laudatory praise. They're perfectly normal comparators for Grant or Newsom, who aren't particularly known for anything yet beyond picking up some of Kavanaugh's clerks after he was elevated (for the former) and an adventurous writing style (for the latter).

Iowahawk wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:17 pm

polareagle wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:21 pm

I think this more recent anon has hit the nail on the head. (After all how could we forget such universally well-known legal luminaries as Scudder or Hamilton, who I've definitely for sure heard of before this very moment.) This thread is called "best and worst judges to clerk for." I think we need to rank, at the very least, all 179 active circuit judges. I'll go first.

1. Merrick Garland

Hamilton has fed to SCOTUS and, at the risk of ranking, maybe is the second most-prominent liberal judge in the Midwest after Diane Wood. Not saying much given the composition of 6/7/8, but a highly desirable clerkship and definitely not obscure. Scudder is a new appointee, so it's understandable to not be familiar with him, but if you just search his name on this forum you will find lots of laudatory praise. They're perfectly normal comparators for Grant or Newsom, who aren't particularly known for anything yet beyond picking up some of Kavanaugh's clerks after he was elevated (for the former) and an adventurous writing style (for the latter).

To be clear, I couldn't pick Grant or Newsom out of a lineup either and think I've only heard about them on here here. No offense intended to Hamilton or Scudder.

My somewhat sarcastically-made broader point was that aside from students currently applying for clerkships and appellate practitioners/nerds, individual circuit judges occupy very little space in the minds of practicing lawyers (even litigators like me). When hiring, I pay next to no attention to which judge you clerked for, unless it's one of the ones I clerked for. (To the extent you got a great clerkship because of great grades, I can see those. To the extent you got a great clerkship with sub-par grades, either there's something else special about you I can see, or you had a connection. In any event, I care far more about how you're going to be as a colleague at that point, which I assess based on your interview.)

I do think which judge you clerk for is vastly more important than what circuit you clerk on, but I also think it's not worth spending the time thinking about whether judge X, Y, or Z is the *most* prestigious/selective. Unless you've got a legit shot at SCOTUS (which very few do), it's far more important to focus on whether your judge is a good boss, a good career mentor, will take the time to help you develop good writing skills, will put you in touch with her/his network, etc.

(Not saying you disagree with any of this Iowahawk, just expanding because the reasoning underlying my sarcasm above wasn't exactly clear.)

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 11, 2021 1:27 am

I agree that Circuit prestige is overblown, especially with regard to the 2nd, 7th, and 9th Circuits. In my observation, however, it is indeed real with regard to the DC Circuit and, in the more niche world of patent litigation, the Federal Circuit.

Ugh I turned down a D.C. Circuit clerkship for a Ninth Circuit clerkship. I will forever regret this decision (95% joking).