Continuation: The Clerks
In case the original thread is too far down the blog now, here's another post to continue the discussion. I found this resource on a tip from an associate I work with. It doesn't cover much, but what it covers, it covers well.
Howard Bashman's interviews with judges
Here's a link to the original post and comments.
Howard Bashman's interviews with judges
Here's a link to the original post and comments.
Labels: Kevin Smith
posted by Tom Fletcher at 7:18 AM
6 Comments:
Here's another resource - the committee lists of the judicial conference. I think that the committee lists in some small way indicate where a judge's academic interests may lie, and also indicate judges respected by their peers to make the rules. An idea anyway.
Hmm... thanks for the help folks. Anyway, here's another thing I figured out this week. If you're interested in criminal defense, you probably want to get some experience with grand jury matters. However, not every judge gets those cases. For example, in D.D.C., Chief Judge Hogan handles the entire grand jury docket. From what I gather in S.D.N.Y., the "Part I" judge handles grand jury matters (among other things) and the job rotates every three weeks. S.D.Tx appears to have a miscellaneous judge who rules on whether cases can proceed as sealed matters, but then appears to kick them back to the normal random judge. N.D.Cal and C.D.Cal's websites are so crappy I can't figure anything out. Anyone who can shed light on how districts divvy this work up (anyone at the AUSA office?) would be appreciated.
If you want crim law experience in chambers, Judge Wilken is not the best choice. From what I remember from my externship, she handles most of the crim stuff herself as she used to be federal defender and then had her own crim defense practice.
But I don't know how NDCal handles grand juries.
Two notes. According to the Criminal L.R. 6-1, 6-2(a),(b) for N.D. Cal., the General Duty judge (which rotates) impanels the grand jury. For motions pertaining to the composition or term of the grand jury, the judge that impaneled it decides if available, otherwise the current general duty judge decides. For motions pertaining to the process or proceedings, i.e. sealed indictments, the current general duty judge decides.
Also, according to my externship interview w/ Judge Fogel's clerks, they only handle civil cases.
I'm currently a criminal defense atty who previously clerked for a district court judge.
My take: While it's nice, it is by no means necessary to get a judge with a heavy criminal load. It is more important to learn the scene, learn how to write well, and just do a damn clerkship. The latter will open more doors for you than anything else.
If you want to get experience specifically relevant to criminal defense, do an internship with the PD or the DA. My summer at the public defender's office was every bit as relevant as my clerkship - and that's saying a lot.
yeah, the judge i extern for does most of the criminal work himself, but one of the clerks is particularly interested in crim so he has her help out when needed. he used to be a DA and mostly crim. judge in state court so he knows the scene pretty well, but that also makes him an excellent teacher, as he gets really excited when anyone asks him about crim stuff.
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