 |
Tips from Student Lawyer (magazine of the ABA Law Student
Division)
KF287.S77, current issues at Reference Area; older volumes at Classified
Stacks.
Selected articles are online at
http://www.abanet.org/lsd/studentlawyer -- but not most of the
following articles. |
- "Why Clerk? What Did I Get Out of It?,56 J. Legal Educ. 411
(2006). How do students decide which judges to clerk for, how do
students evaluate their clerkship experience, and what is the effect of
the clerkship on the students' careers.
- Rat Race: Insider Advice on Landing Judicial Clerkships, 110
Penn. St. L. Rev. 835 (2006).
- Judge for Yourself, Student Law., Mar. 2004, at 25."Regardless
of what you might assume, judicial clerkship opportunities are available
to all students. Find out how to begin pursuing one, whether you're in
your first, second or final year of law school - or even beyond."
- 10 Simple Rules for Applying for a Judicial Clerkship, Student
Law., Sept. 2003, at 22.
- 6 Simple Rules for Judicial Clerkship Interviewing, Student
Law., Oct. 2003, at 32."You've mailed your judicial clerkship applications
and are waiting for a reply. Before the judge's chambers calls, it's a
good idea to start thinking about the next step in your clerkship
search--the interview."
- Judicial Clerkships: An Alternative Route, Student Law., Nov.
2002, at 28. "There's still
time to apply if you want the unparalleled experience of clerking for a
judge, but you may have to look in places that aren't obvious."
- The Lowdown on Landing a Judicial Clerkship, Student Law., Oct.
2000, at 36."Although I don't offer this article as the single definitive
source on how to obtain one of these coveted positions, I hope that
reading about my experience helps you in your quest."
- The Clerkship Club, Student Law., Oct. 2001, p. 18. "Clerking
for a judge can be an excellent way to gain a mentor and obtain direct
experience with the courts and the law."
Specifics & Details
Where can I find information specifically about clerkships - who's
hiring, how many clerks, salary, etc.?
State & Federal
West/Rocky Mountain Law School Judicial Clerkship Consortium
Provides detailed information about clerkship and externship opportunities
with judges in the western United States. Information compiled by ten
participating law schools. Please email abearse [at] u.washington.edu for
the password. Also contains a Judicial Clerkship Handbook and links to other
judicial clerkship websites
Federal
Federal Law Clerk
Information System
The system is intended to assist law clerk applicants by making it much
easier to learn about federal clerkship opportunities and judges' hiring
practices. The site is also available to judges to post current and future
openings. Contains a database of federal clerkships maintained by the
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. See also the
Law Clerk Handbook: A Handbook for Law Clerks to Federal Judges, 2d
ed. KF8807 .R83 2007
Federal Judges Law Clerk
Hiring Plan (includes application deadlines)
Washington State
UW Career Planning and Public Service Center,
State Supreme Court
Clerkships Timeline and Application Info (UW NetID
required).
Division 1
information about application process and list of judges.
Division 2
list
of judges and commissioners indicating openings for clerks.
Division 3
State
Guide to State Judicial Clerkship Procedures (2004). Available in
the Career Planning and Public Service Center.
Provides information on clerkship opportunities and application procedures
in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
Law Student Jobs Online. Access through .
Enter your Westlaw password, then choose Career link at top of screen.
Choose Careers, then Law Student Jobs Online (LSJO). Click on "Search the
Database Now" and check the box for "Court & Judicial Clerkships."
Directories
Where can I find basic directory information - judges' names, addresses,
phone numbers? In addition to the sources noted below, see also the
Gallagher guide on People-Finding.
State & Federal
BNA's Directory of State and Federal Courts, Judges, and Clerks.
KF8700.A19K56 at Reference Office
Provides addresses and telephone numbers for federal, state, and local
judges. Includes diagrams of state court systems. Lists judges by state and
court.
Want's Federal-State Court Directory. KF8700.A19W35 at Reference
Office
Provides addresses and telephone numbers for federal and highest-state-court
judges. Includes diagrams of state court systems. Lists judges by court.
U.S. Courts online
directory.
Note that it takes several clicks to get full information (e.g., to get
addresses for 8th Circuit judges, you choose Courts of Appeals and Search by
Circuit (Eighth Circuit), then you click on a link for the St. Louis
headquarters, then click on the court website link, then click on the
sidebar link for Eighth Circuit Judges, ... then each judge's address is
listed separately). In other words, this is not the easiest way to get
addresses for a lot of judges at once.
Directory of Minority Judges of the United States. KF8700.A19D57
2001 at Reference Office
Provides addresses and telephone numbers for minority judges at the federal,
state, and local court levels. Lists judges by ethnicity, state, and court.
Last published in 2001.
Directory of court websites
from the National Center for State Courts
Washington State
Washington Court Directory.
KFW508.A19W37 at Reference Office & Career Planning and Public Service
Center.
Provides names and addresses for all state and local judges.
Washington State Yearbook. JK9230.W38 at Reference Area &
Reference Office
Provides names and addresses for all state and local judges. Provides
biographical information for Washington State Supreme Court justices.
Recent Judicial Nominations & Appointments
How can I find out about recently nominated or confirmed judges?
Federal
Judicial Nominations
and Confirmations
DOJ nominations page. Has a listing of all pending judicial nominations,
including links to nominees' resumes.
Senate Judiciary Committee
Contains list of pending and confirmed nominations.
Michigan Career Services
Judicial Nominations Database
Yale Career Development Office
list of federal judicial nominees,
includes contact information.
Washington State
Governor's
recent appointments.
Biographical Information
What about something more than just directory-type information? Where can
I find biographical information too?
State & Federal
 |
The American Bench - Judges
of the Nation.
KF8700.A19A47 at Reference Office
Provides addresses and telephone numbers for federal, state, and local
judges. Includes biographical information for some judges. Lists judges
by state. |
|
|
Who's Who in American Law.
KF372.W48 at Reference Office
Provides biographical information for judges listed. |
Federal
Almanac of the Federal Judiciary. KF8700.A19 A45 at Reference Area
Very useful for pre-interview research. Volume 1 includes district court
judges, bankruptcy judges, and magistrates; Volume 2 includes the U.S.
Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges. Provides addresses,
biographical information, publications, noteworthy rulings, media coverage,
and lawyers' evaluations. This directory is available on Westlaw (AFJ), but
note that the online version does not include the sections of lawyers'
evaluations of judges and media coverage that are available in print.
Federal Judicial Center,
Biographical Directory of
Federal Judges
Biographical information about all federal judges, from 1789 to present.
Washington State
Washington Judges Books. KFW515.W37 1998 at Reference Area
Provides extensive biographical information and pointers for practice before
each judge for superior, district, and municipal courts in King, Snohomish,
and Pierce counties. Also covers Supreme Court and Divisions I and II of the
Court of Appeals. No longer updated.
Background Research
What if I want to do more research about judges' backgrounds, positions,
cases, and so on?
News databases on LexisNexis and Westlaw. Sample searches:
- justice /s richard +2 sanders
- justice /s charles +2 johnson & "death penalty"
- judge +2 james +2 robart
- spokane or (division +2 3 or iii) w/10 appeals or appellate
LegalTrac indexes law journal articles 1980-present. Available through
the Legal Databases & Indexes page and
on LexisNexis (LRI) and Westlaw (LRI) as the "Legal Resource Index."
Washington Voters' Pamphlets. JF495.W2A3 at Reference Office
(current) & Reference Area (prior years),
Includes judicial candidates' statements.
King County Bar Association,
Judicial Ratings
Includes current ratings and candidate questionnaires, surveys about local
judges (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005), and links to other resources.
Record on the Bench
| Type of Opinion |
LexisNexis |
Westlaw |
| all opinions |
writtenby(fletcher) |
op(fletcher) |
| majority opinions |
opinionby(fletcher) |
ju(fletcher) |
| dissenting opinions |
dissentby(fletcher) |
op(fletcher /s dissent!) |
| concurring opinions |
concurby(fletcher) |
op(fletcher /s concur!) |
| opinions reversed or affirmed |
|
sy(fletcher /p revers! affirm!) |
To find out what a judge did before the bench, check old editions of
Martindale-Hubbell, KF190.M3 at Compact Stacks.
Networking with Alumni
Martindale-Hubbell on LexisNexis sample search for UW
graduates who have clerked for Judge Pechman:
law-school("university of washington") and clerk w/5 (pechman)
West's Legal Directory (WLD) on Westlaw sample search for UW graduates
who have clerked in the Western District of Washington:
In the Law School field type: "university of washington" and in the
Narrative field type: clerk & western district w/3 washington
Court Systems
Where can I find information about court systems generally?
The Federal Judiciary Homepage provides an overview of the federal court
system, publications and directories, and a link to the Federal Law Clerk
Information System.
Washington Courts
Non-clerkship Court Jobs
Where can I find out about court jobs other than clerkships?
State-by-state listings of
support staff and staff attorney jobs
Washington Courts Careers page,
http://www.courts.wa.gov/employ/.
U.S. Courts Jobs Vacancies. Note that hiring is decentralized,
so many positions will be listed only with the circuit or district court
clerk's office. |
