The Girl's Guide to Law School
Get In, Get Through, Stay You
If you’re feeling a little unprepared for practice (despite three years of law school!) or are thinking about clerking or starting your own business, today’s interview is for you.
We’re talking with Faith Pincus, former law clerk and lawyer turned entrepreneur. She runs a variety of businesses you’ll learn more about below, all designed to help you transition to practice and stay current on the law!
Without further ado…
When I started work as a law clerk, I assumed I’d learn about trial practice and explore some new areas of law. That turned out to be true.
What I didn’t realize was that I’d get some really great life advice along the way.
We can talk all day about résumé formatting, or what should be included, but there’s really only one question you should be asking (repeatedly) to make your résumé shine for any occasion.
In general, clerking is a great job!
One NALP study found that a remarkable 97% of judicial clerks would still opt to clerk, if they could go back in time and make the choice again.
It is important to understand, however, that there are potential downsides, as with any situation where a small number of people work closely together!
Clerking has a lot of upsides, and it’s likely you’ll have a good experience.
Applying for a clerkship can be one of the most fraught experiences of law school. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
Plenty of talented, well-qualified people apply for clerkships each year, and come up empty handed.
After the chaos of setting up your interview schedule, going to the actual interviews should be rather relaxing!
Or not. Judges can be intimidating people.
Interviewing for a clerkship is basically like interviewing for any other job.
The most critical piece of advice for managing your interview schedule is simple: do not answer the phone!
Let all of your calls go to voicemail, at least temporarily. If you are a competitive candidate and have applied to fast-moving locations, it would not be uncommon to receive between five and ten calls in the first few minutes judges are allowed to schedule interviews under the Guidelines.
If all goes well, one morning your phone will start ringing with judges who would like to meet you.
While receiving calls is certainly exciting, it can also be stressful, especially if you’ve applied in more than one geographic area.
The most desirable recommender is someone who:
In a perfect world, this person would also be a rock star professor with amazing connections, but you’ll have to take what you can get!
Most judges ask for three letters of recommendation and prefer at least two of the three be from law school professors. The final letter could be from a professional reference, or from another professor, perhaps an adjunct.
You may be concerned that you don’t have any obvious recommenders. This is a common problem in law school, where relationships between professors and students are often formal and somewhat distant.
Although each judge will receive a personalized cover letter via the magic of mail merge, it is rather unrealistic to think that you’ll write a completely personal letter to each judge.
If you have a particular connection to a judge, you should mention it in the cover letter. Did you work closely over the summer with a law firm partner whose childhood best friend happens to be a federal judge?
This is the time to name drop (with permission, of course).
It’s advisable to offer some rationale for why you are applying for this particular clerkship, in terms of the type of court and the geographic location.
