UPDATE: IT TURNS OUT THERE WERE MULTIPLE ERRORS OF OMISSION IN THE DATA, EVEN THOUGH SOME OF IT WAS ACCURATE. Accordingly, I’ve deleted the ranking. Sorry for the confusion, and thanks for the prompt corrections!
8 responses to “Where Federal Appellate Clerks Went to Law School”
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I wonder who told you this is accurate? This data should be taken with a HUGE grain of salt, as it is based on self-reporting by people who read the blog. Even assuming only accurate information were reported, clicking on the breakdown for any circuit reveals that no information is available for many of the judges.
Vanderbilt has placed at LEAST two more COA clerks than are reported. -
I first heard about the site from students at various schools, and then from a couple of different faculty members, who confirmed the accuracy of the data for several of these schools (and, of course, I know the Texas data is accurate, though I did not supply it to the site). Please provide the details on the Vanderbilt clerks that you say are missing from this data. Thanks.
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As the faculty clerkship advisor for Vanderbilt Law School this year, I can confirm that Vanderbilt presently has secured 8 court of appeals clerkships beginning in 2007. It is unclear whether the site you linked to is counting just present 3Ls or graduates as well. I suspect the numbers include at least some of both. Based on Vanderbilt’s current 3L class, the 8 clerkships represent almost 3.6%. If we count only the current 3Ls, then the percentage who have secured clerkships is 2.2%. This year we have placed clerks in the 4th, 6th, 9th, 11th, and Federal Circuits. In either case, based on the information you have provided, our numbers place us at a minimum in the top 20 and maybe even around the top 10, depending on how the counting is being done. Hope that helps.
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Thanks. It would be most useful if you could list the judges and their circuits, as is done on the site to which I linked, which would make confirmation easier.
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I can tell you point blank that the clerkship information is incorrect about Penn. Penn’s career office puts out a judicial clerkship handbook which includes a listing of students that are clerking (or have clerked) at both the federal and state level. This listing includes both the student and judge’s name; there are at least 12 Penn alumni clerking for circuit judges (including the Fed. Cir.) beginning in the Fall of 2007.
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The data that is listed here for the University of Virginia is also inaccurate. Seventeen members of the class of 2007 at UVA have secured federal appellate clerkships to begin in the fall of 2007.
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As the chair of the UCLA clerkship committee, I can report that we have 12 soon-to-be-graduates or graduates clerking on the U.S. Courts of Appeals in 2007-08, plus two students who are U.S. Court of Appeals staff attorneys (one for 2006-08 and one for 2007-09). We also have two graduates who have already gotten U.S. Court of Appeals clerkships for 2008-09.
The 2007-08 clerks are with Sloviter (3), Clay (6), Bea (9), Bybee (9), Gould (9), Hall (9, senior), D.W. Nelson (9, senior), Tashima (9, two clerks), Wardlaw (9, two clerks), Pregerson (9). The 2008-09 clerks are with Alarcon (9, senior) and Rymer (9). -
As the Assistant Dean for Career Services at Harvard Law School, I can state that the figures reported for Harvard are inaccurate. Currently, we are aware of 75 federal appellate clerkships for 2007. As we continue to gather data, we expect that number to increase.
With regard to the paper, it should not be much of a surprise that my views have substantially evolved over…