Questions to Ask a Judge's Former Clerks
For law students and young lawyers with a clerkship interview coming up, or an offer on the table, and a phone call arranged with someone who used to work for the judge. The questions follow the order such a call tends to take: the judge as a boss, the work and how drafts are edited, hours and how chambers runs, what the judge does for clerks after the term, the interview itself, and what the clerk makes of the year now. None of them asks how a case was decided, which a former clerk is not free to discuss; all of them are about the job.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The judge
What is the judge like to work for?
Why ask it
Open with it and then stop talking. Whatever the clerk reaches for first, whether it is how much the judge taught them or how exacting the judge is, tends to be what defined their year. If all you get is one warm adjective, ask what an ordinary Tuesday with the judge looked like.
What is the judge like on a bad day?
Why ask it
Everyone is pleasant in an interview, so this is the side you cannot see for yourself. A story about a tense trial week and a short temper that had passed by morning describes something ordinary. A long pause, or 'you learn to read the mood', deserves a gentle 'what did that look like?'
How much time did you spend with the judge in a normal week?
Why ask it
The range runs from talking cases through at the judge's desk every day to passing paper through an assistant for weeks at a stretch. Only the first is the apprenticeship most applicants picture. An answer of 'more as the year went on' means contact was earned, which is useful to know before a quiet first month.
What does the judge value most in a clerk?
Why ask it
Put to the judge, this gets a polished answer. Put to a former clerk, it gets what was praised and what was corrected: speed, accuracy down to the last citation, brevity, a willingness to say the draft is wrong. Before an interview, it tells you which of your own strengths to lead with.
How does the judge react when a clerk makes a mistake?
Why ask it
Every clerk misses a case or sends up a draft with an error sooner or later, so ask about the time it happened to them. You are listening for whether the judge fixed the problem and moved on or kept returning to it. If they say it never came up, ask about a co-clerk.
Did you know where you stood with the judge during the year?
Why ask it
A judge may never say 'good work' out loud, and a clerk can go months unsure whether the drafts are landing. Find out how this one could tell: a word after a hearing, lighter edits, a harder case next time, or nothing until the goodbye lunch. If you are someone who needs to hear it, that last answer matters more than the hours do.
Could you disagree with the judge, and how did that go?
Why ask it
Leave the case itself out of it; what you want is how the disagreement was received. A judge who wants the other side argued hard before deciding and a judge who wants the draft that was asked for are both workable, but they suit different clerks. Listen for whether this clerk ever tried it a second time.
Did it matter whether a clerk shared the judge's views?
Why ask it
This is one for a former clerk and never for the judge. The useful answer is about the room: whether a clerk could argue the other side without it counting against them, and whether politics came up over lunch. Keep it there, and do not ask how the judge leaned in any particular case.
How did the judge treat the assistant and the courtroom staff?
Why ask it
How a boss speaks to people who can do nothing for their career is a fair measure of them. The number of years the assistant or the courtroom deputy has been with the judge is the checkable half of the answer: staff who have stayed a long time chose to.
What are the judge's pet peeves?
Why ask it
Clerks usually laugh and then list them: a late arrival, a phone on the desk, a memo that buries its answer on page four. Small as they are, they are free points in your first weeks. A list that runs long and comes without the laugh tells you something else.
Did the judge talk through the reasoning with clerks, or did you mostly learn by watching?
Why ask it
A judge who thinks aloud with clerks, after a hearing, over lunch or with a draft on the desk, is giving the part of clerking that cannot be had anywhere else. You want to know whether that happened and how often, never what was said. If it was rare, find out what the clerk learned from in its place.
Is there anything about how the judge treats people in chambers that I should know before I say yes?
Why ask it
This is the door for anything serious, worded so that a clerk can walk through it or leave it shut. Ask only once the call has warmed up, and let the silence run. If the answer troubles you, take it to your school's clerkship adviser before you decide, and ask what channels that court has for raising a concern.
The work
What did you spend most of your days doing?
Why ask it
Ask for rough proportions: so much research, so much drafting, so much proofreading, so much time in court. The split differs enormously between a trial court and an appellate one, and between two judges on the same floor. Set the answer beside the year you had been picturing.
Who writes the first draft: the judge or the clerk?
Why ask it
Where the clerk drafts, you get a year of heavy writing practice and the weight of the first attempt. Where the judge drafts, you research, check and argue, and you watch an opinion get built from nothing. Routine orders and the big opinions are often handled differently, so get both halves.
How does the judge edit a clerk's draft?
Why ask it
Listen for the method: handwritten marks, tracked changes, a full rewrite, or an hour at the judge's desk with the pages between you. A rewrite that arrives with no explanation teaches less than a marked page you can study. The best version of this answer has the judge saying why a change was made.
How long did a draft usually sit with the judge before it came back?
Why ask it
Turnaround sets the rhythm of the whole term. Drafts that return in a day keep your list short, and drafts that wait a month leave a pile of half-finished matters to carry in your head. In a slow chambers the practical point is who was allowed to nudge the judge, and how they went about it.
By the end of the term, how much of your draft made it into what was filed?
Why ask it
The trend matters more than the amount. A clerk whose pages came back lighter each month was being taught the judge's voice. If it was 'almost none, all year', ask whether that held for every clerk and whether it wore on them.
What did the judge want from a bench memo?
Why ask it
The clerk will tell you in a word if this judge does not use them, and then you can move on. Otherwise ask about length, whether to recommend an outcome and how far ahead of the hearing it was due. A chambers that keeps a template will often hand it to the next clerk, so it costs nothing to ask.
Does the judge have writing rules a new clerk should learn before the first day?
Why ask it
Plenty of judges have a style sheet, written down or not: banned words, a view on footnotes, a way with citations. A former clerk can often recite it from memory years later. Ask which of the judge's opinions shows the style best, and read that one before any interview.
How much time did you get in the courtroom?
Why ask it
At a trial court a clerk may sit through hearings and whole trials or stay back in chambers writing while they happen, and on an appellate court it may come down to argument days. If watching lawyers at work is part of why you want the year, weigh this answer heavily. It also helps to know whether the clerk had a job in the room, such as keeping notes or tracking exhibits, or simply watched.
How was work divided among the clerks?
Why ask it
Odd and even case numbers, subject areas, whoever is free: the system decides what you get to see. Two details matter most. Could a clerk put a hand up for a case in an area they cared about, and did a senior or career clerk keep the best work?
What kinds of cases filled most of the year?
Why ask it
A former clerk can describe the docket in general terms without touching any single matter. Check it against what you hope to practice afterward, because a year of criminal sentencings and a year of contract disputes train different lawyers. Dockets shift, so put this to a recent clerk if yours left some time ago.
How much of the job had nothing to do with law?
Why ask it
Proofreading, calendar work, greeting visitors and sorting the mail are ordinary in plenty of chambers. Personal errands for the judge are another matter, and this wording lets a clerk mention them without being asked outright. Pay attention to the tone as well as the list.
Chambers
What were your hours in an ordinary week?
Why ask it
Clock times are easier to give than a weekly total: when they arrived, when they left, whether lunch was at the desk. What you are after next is the cause, the workload or the judge's own schedule, since only one of those eases in a slow month. A clerk from several terms back may be describing a chambers that has since changed.
What did the heaviest weeks look like, and how often did they come?
Why ask it
A trial, an argument sitting or an emergency filing can each double the load. Two hard weeks a quarter is a different job from a standing crisis, so press for how often. A judge who sent everyone home early once it eased has told you something as well.
Did the judge expect you to be reachable at night or on weekends?
Why ask it
What you need is how the message arrived and how fast a reply was expected. A text on Sunday about Monday's hearing a few times a year is one thing, and a judge who emails at midnight and remembers who answered is a way of life. Ask what happened the one time they did not see it.
Did it matter when you were at your desk, or only that the work got done?
Why ask it
Face-time rules are rarely written down, which is how they catch new clerks out. The strict version is in before the judge and out after, whatever is on your desk. How this clerk found out which kind of chambers it was is the story to get.
Could you take time off, and did you?
Why ask it
Leave on paper and leave in practice are two things, so the number to get is how many days this clerk took and how far ahead they had to say so. If a wedding, a bar exam or a family commitment already falls inside your term, describe it and hear how they think it would land.
Was working from home ever an option?
Why ask it
Policies differ by court and by judge and have moved around in recent years, so a recent clerk's answer counts for more here. If you would be relocating or commuting a long way, this may decide where you live. A standing arrangement and a favor granted now and then are not the same answer.
Who really runs chambers day to day?
Why ask it
Often it is the judicial assistant or a career clerk, and that person shapes your week nearly as much as the judge does. Get a sense of what they care about. Knowing in advance who controls the calendar and who reads a draft before the judge does will spare you a month of trial and error.
How did the clerks work with one another?
Why ask it
You will not have the same co-clerks, so the setup matters more than the names. Did the clerks read each other's drafts, cover for each other and eat together, or compete for the judge's attention? Anything the judge did to set that tone, such as praising one clerk in front of another, will still be there in your year.
How were you trained in your first weeks?
Why ask it
The generous version is a week alongside the outgoing clerks, a manual and a folder of sample orders; the other version is a stack of files. If it was the stack, find out whether this clerk would take your call during your first month, and keep the number if they say yes.
How did the judge respond when a clerk had something going on at home?
Why ask it
Illness, a new baby, a parent in the hospital: a year is long enough for something to happen to somebody. The clerk may tell you about a colleague and not themselves, which is fine. What you want to know is whether the judge's standards bent for a person when it counted.
After the term
Has the judge helped you with jobs since you left?
Why ask it
Ask what was done: a call to a hiring partner, a letter for a second clerkship, advice on a move years later. A clerk who says 'the judge would if I asked' has not tested it, so ask whether they know someone who has.
What kind of reference does the judge give?
Why ask it
A judge may write a detailed letter for every clerk and return every employer's call, or may decline to recommend anyone as a matter of policy. Clerks rarely see the letter itself, so the thing to get is what came back to them from the employer's side. The sharper follow-up is whether the judge's backing depended on where the clerk wanted to go.
Where did you and your co-clerks go afterward?
Why ask it
One chambers' alumni show you where the judge's name carries weight and whom the judge knows. If the job you want next is not among them, ask whether any clerk has tried for it and how the judge backed them.
How did the judge handle clerks looking for their next job during the term?
Why ask it
You will be job hunting while you work there, and judges differ on interviews during work hours, on when the search may start and on employers that appear before the court. Many courts have rules on that last point, so ask how it worked in this chambers and whom the clerk checked with. A judge who offered days for interviews unprompted has shown you how they see their clerks' futures.
Are you still in touch with the judge?
Why ask it
The honest range runs from a holiday card to a phone call before every career decision. Who starts the contact tells you more than how often it happens. A clerk who left years ago and still calls the judge for advice has answered several other questions on this page at once.
Do the judge's former clerks help each other?
Why ask it
A clerk family can be a working network: people who pass on openings, read each other's applications and reply to a cold email from a stranger who shares their judge. A list, a reunion or a group thread is the sign that it is organized. The person who agreed to talk to you is already part of the answer.
Has any clerk left before the term was up?
Why ask it
A departure in the middle of a term is the kind of thing a judge's former clerks hear about. There are harmless reasons, such as a family move or a job that could not wait, so get the reason before drawing a conclusion. More than one early departure, or a quick change of subject, is something to raise with a second clerk.
The interview
What was your interview with the judge like?
Why ask it
The format can be a friendly half hour about your hometown or a grilling on a recent opinion and your writing sample. Ask how long it lasted, who else was in the room and whether there was a writing or editing exercise. Judges change their approach over time, so ask what year this was.
What did the judge ask you that you were not ready for?
Why ask it
It may have been a footnote in the writing sample, a view on a recent decision of that court, or simply why this city. Whatever caught this clerk out is cheap for you to prepare. A former clerk who has since helped read applications may also know which question every candidate gets.
Do the current clerks and the staff have a say in who gets hired?
Why ask it
In many chambers the clerks meet you first and the judge asks them afterward what they thought, and the assistant's view of how you treated them at the front desk can count too. Where that is so, coffee with the clerks is an interview, and it helps to know what they tend to ask.
Is there anything applicants say that the judge is tired of hearing?
Why ask it
This draws out the small disqualifiers: flattery about a famous opinion, a rehearsed line about loving to write, talk of the year as a stepping stone to a firm. It also turns up subjects the judge enjoys. One of each is enough to take away.
What should I read before I walk in?
Why ask it
Expect a short list: a few of the judge's opinions, an article or a speech, perhaps something on the judge's career before the bench. Ask which opinion the judge is proudest of, since that is the one to know well. Never claim to have read what you only skimmed.
How quickly did the offer come, and how long did you have to answer?
Why ask it
Some judges offer on the spot or within the day and expect an answer nearly as fast, and in some places turning a judge down is frowned upon. That is the argument for making these calls before the interview and not after it. Your school's clerkship office can tell you the custom for this court.
Looking back
What do you wish you had known before you started?
Why ask it
The answer is usually practical: learn the local rules, live near the courthouse, do not take the first round of edits to heart. Write it down in their words. When two former clerks give you the same answer, treat it as a fact about the job.
Why did you choose this judge, and did the year match what you expected?
Why ask it
The first half shows what drew a clerk like this one: the court, the city, the judge's reputation, a professor's push. The second half is where the surprises are, good and bad. If their reasons are close to yours, the gap between what they expected and what they got is the one you would face.
What was the hardest part of the year?
Why ask it
Ask it plainly and wait. The volume, the isolation of a small chambers, writing in someone else's voice and a difficult stretch with the judge are four very different answers. Follow with how long it lasted and whether anyone helped.
Who would be unhappy clerking for this judge?
Why ask it
People who will not criticize a former boss will still describe a mismatch. 'Someone who needs a lot of feedback' or 'someone who wants to be home by six' names exactly what the year does not offer. Hold the description up against yourself honestly.
Would you clerk for this judge again?
Why ask it
Keep this for the last few minutes, once the detail is behind you, and listen to the speed of the reply as much as the words. 'Yes, but' is common and worth following. Ask what comes after the but, and whether they would say the same to a younger sibling.
Who else should I talk to?
Why ask it
Ask for a clerk from a different year and, if one comes to mind, someone whose experience was unlike theirs. Names the judge supplies are the judge's choices, and names from a former clerk widen the sample. If nobody is suggested, look for one yourself through your school.
What have I not asked that I should have?
Why ask it
End on it. Clerks often hold back something they were not sure you wanted to hear, and an open invitation brings it out. Then thank them, and ask whether you may come back with one more question if the offer arrives.
How to get a straight answer from a judge's former clerk
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Finding clerks and timing the call
Where the names come from
Chambers will often give an applicant one or two names on request, and some judges build a call into the process. Your law school's clerkship office, its alumni directory and professors who send students to that court are the other sources, and a lawyer's firm biography often names the judge they clerked for. Try to reach at least one person the judge did not pick for you.
Call before the interview if you can
An offer can follow an interview quickly, and in some courts an applicant is expected to answer fast. How that works differs by court and by judge, so ask your clerkship office what the custom is where you are applying. If the custom is speed, the time to learn what the judge is like as a boss is before you sit down in chambers. The judge and The interview are the groups to draw from then.
With an offer in hand
Once the offer is yours the conversation can be franker, because the clerk is no longer talking to a candidate who might not get the job. Lead with Chambers and After the term, and ask the harder questions under The judge. Tell the clerk how long you have to decide, so they know how direct to be.
Ask for twenty minutes by phone
A short email saying who you are, which term you are applying for and that you would be grateful for twenty minutes is enough. Suggest a phone call, not an exchange of emails: people will say aloud about a sitting judge what they would never put in writing. Do not send your questions ahead unless the clerk asks for them.
During the call
Begin with their year
Ask when they clerked and what they do now before anything else. It is polite, and it tells you how current their picture of chambers is. A clerk from the judge's first years on the bench and a clerk from last year may be describing two different jobs.
Ask for one week, one draft
A former clerk asked whether the judge is a good mentor will say yes, because it costs nothing. Asked what came back on the last draft they handed in, they have to describe something. When an answer on this call stays general, bring it down to one week, one draft or one hearing day.
Stay away from the cases
Clerks are expected to keep what went on in a case to themselves, and that expectation generally outlasts the term. Never ask what the judge really thought of a matter, a lawyer or another judge on the court. Everything worth asking a former clerk is about the job: the hours, the editing, the people and the help afterward.
Make candor easy
Few people will call a former boss difficult, and most will answer a question about fit. 'Who would struggle there?' and 'what would you tell a friend?' let a clerk be honest without feeling disloyal. Then be quiet, because the sentence you needed often comes after a pause.
Assume the judge may hear about it
Former clerks are often close to their judge and may mention that you called. That is normal and usually does you no harm. It does mean you should say nothing on the call, about the judge, another chambers or your other applications, that you would mind having repeated.
Weighing what you heard
Notice what is left out
Clerks who loved the year tend to volunteer stories about the judge. Clerks who did not will often fall back on the quality of the cases and how much they learned, and say little about the person. Praise for the work with nothing about the judge as a boss is a reason to make one more call.
One clerk is one year
Co-clerks, the docket and the judge's own circumstances change from term to term. Two or three calls, spread across different years if you can manage it, show you what stays constant. Where the accounts conflict, the more recent one is usually the better guide to the job you would be taking.
Hard is not the same as bad
Long hours and heavy editing from a judge who explains every change can be the most useful year of a young lawyer's training. The same hours with no explanation and no thanks are something else. Sort what you heard into demanding and unkind, and decide how much of the first you want.
When nobody will talk
One unanswered email means nothing, since lawyers are busy. Several former clerks who decline to speak, or who say only that it was a good experience and end the call, are a pattern. Take that pattern to your clerkship adviser or to a professor who knows the court before you go any further.
After you hang up
Write it down the same day
Memory rounds a call off to 'she liked it' within a day or two. Put down the particulars that evening: the hours as clock times, how drafts came back, and how fast the clerk answered when you asked about doing the year again. With several judges in play, those pages are the only fair way to set one chambers against another a month on.
Thank them, and keep them posted
A two-line email that day is enough. If you get the clerkship, write again to say so. You have joined the same small group, and this is probably the first person you will call with a question in your opening month.
Use it in the interview without quoting anyone
What you learned should shape which experiences you bring up and which of the judge's opinions you read closely. Do not tell the judge 'your former clerk said'. Mentioning that you spoke with a former clerk and came away more interested is fine, and often welcome.
If something worried you
Talk it through with your school's clerkship adviser or a faculty member you trust before deciding, and ask whether withdrawing or declining carries any cost with that court or at your school. Many courts also have an office or a named contact for workplace concerns, so ask how that works where you would be clerking. A clerkship is a year in close quarters with one boss, and a serious warning from someone who has done it deserves weight.