A Guide to Beginning Your Judicial Internship Job Search
Columbia Law School Office of Career Services and Development
Working for a judge during your 1L summer can be a fantastic experience. Among other things, a summer judicial internship position will give you the opportunity to enhance your legal research and writing skills, as well as observe court room proceedings.
Preparation
An application packet to a judge should include a cover letter, resume, transcript (which will likely consist of a list of your courses), and a short writing sample. Your cover letter should be brief, but it should explain some of your previous experience and address why you are interested in working for a judge in the particular court to which you are applying. As a result, you will likely have different cover letters for appellate courts and trial courts. Where possible, it is helpful to include a reference in this cover letter. We strongly advise that you ask Anne Green or a counselor in the Office of Career Services to review your cover letter.
Research
Once your resume and cover letter are prepared, you can begin compiling a list of judges to whom you want to apply. Some ways to narrow down your list of judges are to focus on (i) a particular geographic region, state, or city, (ii) judges whose backgrounds or written opinions interest you, or (iii) judges who attended CLS or have hired CLS students in the past. To obtain a list of judges who meet your criteria, simply use the search feature of the clerkship module of Symplicity (which contains the names and mailing addresses of all federal and some state judges). Symplicity also contains survey responses about interviews and clerkships with some judges.
Mailings
Once you have your list of the judges, you can export the data from Symplicity into a spreadsheet in order to create a mail merge. You must print your cover letters and resumes and mail them to each judge as most do not accept applications by e-mail. These letters should be printed on resume paper and mailed in file-size envelopes.
To export information from Symplicity:
· Click the “Clerkship” tab and fill out the brief survey
· Search by your preferred location
· Once you have your list on the screen, click the small “+” button at the top left-hand side of the list
· Once all the judges are selected, you can click the “Export to Excel” button
· Save the list onto your computer and then it can be opened
The clerkship section of Symplicity also contains detailed instructions of how to complete this export and create a mail merge in Word.
Timing
You should attempt to have all your letters mailed to judges during the first few weeks of December. Although some judges may accept applications after that, many move quickly in their hiring process and having materials sent as close to December 1st as possible can give you an advantage. Interviews will typically occur in late December through early February. For those of you who are applying to a state outside of New York and plan to be in that area for the winter break, you should note the dates that you plan to be in town in your cover letter.
Evaluation Criteria
Law school grades do not play a pivotal role in hiring decisions for 1L summer judicial internships, as many decisions are made before grades are published in late January. Judges are more interested in your professional and academic experiences, your work ethic and interest in working for a judge, and other personal and professional achievements.
Compensation
Summer judicial internships are unpaid positions but are covered by guaranteed summer funding. Alternatively, you may receive academic credit for a judicial internship if you meet specific requirements and complete a course over the summer.
Additional Information
Judges tend to hire on a relatively fast time line. It is not unusual for judges to extend offers within a week of an interview and to expect a response within a day or two. When you receive an offer from a judge, it is expected that you will accept it. Be aware of this expectation if you are applying to several other positions with slower application processes. We strongly recommend against splitting your summer between a judge and another employer, as this will give you a less extensive experience in either position. Splitting also increases the number of weeks you will be expected to work and can conflict with the Early Interview Program in August, if you intend to participate.
Please note that all of the resources available to students applying for post-graduation clerkships are also available to you during a summer search by visiting the clerkship website at http://web.law.columbia.edu/students/student-services/learning/judicial-clerkships. Your OCS counselor is also available to meet with you about strategy and to review your application materials.