Public Works

The 2009-2010 Dean Acheson Legal Stage Program

The United States Embassy in Luxembourg is accepting applications for the Dean Acheson Legal Stage Program in Luxembourg at the Court of Justice of the European Communities for 2009-2010. The purpose of the Dean Acheson Legal Stage Program is to promote mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and the European Union in the context of the legal profession. There are three types of stage available: (1) with a Judge of the Court of Justice; (2) with an Advocate General of the Court of Justice; and (3) with a Judge of the Court of First Instance.

There are two possible Dean Acheson Legal Stage periods for 2009-2010: Fall Term (mid-September to mid-December) and Spring Term (mid-February to mid-May). The maximum Stage period is three months due to Visa requirements for non-E.U. citizens. Dean Acheson stagiaires are responsible for the full cost of their transportation, room and board while participating in the Dean Acheson stage program.

Applications must be submitted to the Public Service Center by Monday, April 27, 2009. The application form and more information about the Dean Acheson Program are attached.

Download Dean_Acheson_Application_2009

European Summer Institute 2009

Prague's Centre for Public Policy is pleased to announce the forthcoming European Summer Institute 2009 on the Future of Europe: Lobbying in Brussels.  The European Summer Institute 2009 is a seven-day academic program designed to bring together 30 undergraduate and graduate students of various nationalities and academic backgrounds in an unique academic and cultural environment.

The program provides students with an exciting opportunity to deepen their knowledge of current EU politics through the exchange of ideas with academics, policy practitioners and fellow students from different cultures. The European Summer Institute combines intensive academic courses with cultural, social and recreational opportunities.

The program will take place in Prague from July 4-11, 2009.  The early-bird application deadline is April 30, 2009.  Please see the Program's website for more information and to complete an online application.

Judicial Bulletin No. 6: Submitting Your Judge Lists

This is a brief reminder that your judge lists on both CARS and OSCAR need to be finalized and submitted by this Monday, July 28, 2008 at 5:00pm.

Please keep in mind the following:

(1) Even if you have e-mailed your judge list to your recommender for their approval, you must still create and submit your requests through the CARS and/or OSCAR system in order for them to be processed.

(2)  In CARS, you must make sure that you have not only created your judge list, but that you have also submitted your list for faculty approval. If you do not use the "Submit Your Clerkship Selections for Final Approval" feature within CARS, your requests will not reach your professors and in turn will not be processed. For more information on this, please see the following document: Download summary_of_application_procedures__31008_.pdf .

(3) In OSCAR, you must create an application to a judge and indicate who your recommenders are in order for your recommenders to be able to upload their letters. They cannot upload a letter of recommendation for you until you have actually created an application.  The application can be in draft form, and can consist of only your resume—but until you actually create an application, the recommenders cannot do their parts.  For more information on how to use OSCAR, please see the Applicant User Guide, available, here.

Judicial Bulletin No. 5: CARS and OSCAR Deadline Update

Due to a problem during the replacement of the HVAC system at the Law School last Friday (7/18/08), some of you may have noticed that LawWeb, and in turn CARS, were unavailable over the weekend. We have been informed by ITC that the problem has been resolved and both LawWeb and CARS should now be working properly.

• As a result of the outage, we will be extending the deadline for submitting your final judge lists on CARS and OSCAR, until Monday July 28, 2008 at 5:00pm. Please note: once CARS closes you may no longer add or modify requests.

 

Judicial Bulletin No.4: Key Dates & Judicial Selections in OSCAR

 

This bulletin is a reminder of a few upcoming important dates and also, to pass along some information you may find helpful as you make your judicial selections.

DATES

• Wednesday, July 23: Students must finalize their list of OSCAR and CARS judges (a total of 75). Alums, if you have not submitted your applications by this date, we will process your materials on the same schedule as student applications.  Additional details are provided on our clerkship page ("Clerkship Application Deadlines at a Glance.")

• Monday, August 18: All application materials for CARS judges must be submitted to the Law School. You should also consider finalizing your OSCAR uploads.  We strongly advise against last minute uploads.

A POTENTIAL OSCAR ISSUE

• As of yesterday, July 10, the total "currently hiring" count was 597 (out of 2245).  It has been brought to our attention that a few judges who are listed in OSCAR as "not hiring" are in fact accepting applications.  This is unfortunate; essentially, these are judges who did not update their accounts by June 3 and OSCAR designated them as "not hiring."  What this underscores is the importance for applicants to be extremely proactive in their research and this includes making calls to those chambers that rank high on their preference to confirm that the judges are not hiring. While this may result in a flood of telephone calls to various federal courts in the country, we feel that applicants should not be prejudiced by shortcoming in the OSCAR system. However, we still anticipate, as in previous years, that the majority of federal judges will be hiring for the 2009-2010 court term. 
  

• We have began to compile a list of judges who have met their hiring needs for the 2009 term.  We will update this list as soon as we confirm that a judge has completed his or her hiring for that term.

Virginia Law Clerkship Program | Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center

Judicial Clerkship Bulletin No. 3: Why you Should Consider Clerking for a Judge

Dear students and Alumi:

We are pleased that many of you will be applying for judicial clerkship positions for the 2009 and 2010 court terms.

We continue to hope that members of the Class of 2009 and alums who are undecided or have ruled out a clerkship with a judge will reconsider.  Your decision to clerk is one the best you will make in your legal career. The experience will, among other things, sharpen your legal skills -- both written and oral, provide you a front-row seat to our judicial system, and expose you to a wide variety of substantive areas of the law.  Most lawyers who clerked for a judge (or judges) will tell you that the time they spent in chambers is possibly the most rewarding in their entire legal career.  As Judge Underhill (U.S. District Court, Connecticut) told us during his recent visit at the Law School, "[a] clerkship will be the best job you ever have, unless you become a judge yourself."

You still have time to apply.  For members of the Class of 2009, the critical date to apply for a federal clerkship during the 2009 court term is September 3, 2008; however, you must finalize the list of judges to whom you will apply by July 23, 2008.  (See Clerkship Application Deadlines at a Glance, here; see also Federal Judges Law Clerk Hiring Plan).

Alums -- because the Hiring Plan does not apply to you, you may apply to all federal judges anytime prior to September 3. Please note that you need to access our clerkship page via our Law Alumni Connection network.

Students and alums should also consider clerking for a state court judge.  In addition to our handbook, please read Judicial Clerkships for Everyone (American Bar Association, Student Lawyer Division) that makes a strong case for state court clerkships. Important application dates for state court clerkships are provided in the 2008 Guide to State Judicial Clerkship Procedures, available on the Virginia Law Clerkship page. Many state courts follow the federal law clerk hiring plan but some have already started receiving applications; a few will accept applications in the fall.

If you are interested in clerking, what you need to do immediately is:

• ask members of the Virginia Law faculty and/or former and current supervisors and colleagues for letters of recommendation.  You need at least two but some judges require three. 

• carefully read the UVA Judicial Clerkship Handbook, a Virginia Law produced manual that maps out various considerations in your decision to clerk, and once you do, how to apply.

• review the GPA distribution (clerkship page) for successful Virginia clerkship applicants.  Please know that grades are important but are not solely determinative in your ability to land clerkships.

• survey where our graduates have clerked (see Reference Materials in our clerkship page: "Clerkships Accepted: [various court terms]")

• Start preparing a writing sample (see Handbook, at 17)

• read Rat Race: Insider Advice on Landing Judicial Clerkships, also available under Reference Materials.

• Our Handbook provides several resources on how to select judges (see pp. 2-4; 5-10) . Please read these recommendations carefully.

• We admit that we read several impressive clerkship blogs including Clerkship Notification Blog; SCOTUS; Federal Appellate Jud. Clerks and Above the Law.  However, if you find information therein that may affect you judicial selection, we highly recommend that you call judges' chambers and ask, with the utmost grace and courtesy, if the judges will accept applications for the 2009 or 2010 terms.

If you have questions on the process, please feel free to contact us at judicialclerkships@virginia.edu or  434.924.3883 (e-mail preferred).

Virginia Law Judicial Clerkship Program

Judicial Clerkship Bulletin No. 2: Grade Reports, GPA Calculations, Class Rank

 

(1)  Grade Reports

Grade reports (or transcripts) are generally required for all judicial clerkship applications. Members of the Class of 2009 may obtain a transcript in one of two ways:

• Official transcripts can be ordered through the University of Virginia Office of the Registrar's website, here. They cost $5.00 each and you will receive them within about a week. Please note that if you decide to use an official transcript, you will only need to order one and may make copies for each of your paper (CARS) applications. Also, make sure to copy both sides of the official transcript because the reverse side contains the Law School's grading rubric. If you receive an interview, we encourage you to take the original transcript with you.

• Unofficial transcripts may be obtained free of charge by e-mailing us at judicialclerkships@virginia.edu. Unofficial transcripts contain all of the pertinent information but are not as visually appealing. In the past, applicants were able to upload these transcripts in OSCAR in PDF format; however, this is no longer the case. Under the new system (in the advent of OSCAR version 4.0, released in May 2008) OSCAR applicants are required to enter their grades manually. Detailed information about this process is available here: Download oscar_grade_form_tip_sheet.pdf

• For alumni (including the Class of 2008), unfortunately, we will not be able to provide you with an unofficial transcript because you are no longer in our system. You will need to order an official transcript from the University of Virginia Office of the Registrar, here.
  

(2) GPA Calculations

• In the first or second week of July, we will receive GPA information for all rising third-year students and members of the Class of 2008. Students or recent graduates who would like to receive their GPA should contact us at judicialclerkships@virginia.edu. We will put your name on a list and send you your GPA information as soon as we receive the list. Note: this service is provided ONLY to clerkship applicants.  No exceptions will be made. Non-clerkship applicants may request GPA information from Student Records.

• In the meantime, you may calculate your own GPA by using the Law School's grading rubric available here.

(3) Class Rank

• In keeping with the policy set forth in the 2008-2009 Academic Policies, the University of Virginia School of Law does not use or disclose rank.

• For clerkship application purposes, OSCAR applicants should indicate that the Law School "Does not rank."

Virginia Law Clerkship Program
judicialclerkships@virginia.edu

Judicial Clerkship Bulletin No. 1: CARS & OSCAR

This is the first in a series of announcements that the Clerkship Program will send to rising 3Ls and alums interested in applying for judicial clerkship positions during the 2009 and 2010 court terms.

(1) CARS

• As you may have read in our Clerkship Application Deadlines at a Glance, rising 3L applicants will be granted access to CARS starting on Friday, June 13th.

• To prepare for the June 13 CARS opening, CARS will be shut down on Thursday, June 12, to allow us to make final updates to the system.

• For information on using CARS, please see the Summary of Application Procedures, available here.

(2) CARS & OSCAR

• You will note that CARS also includes judges who wish to receive applications via OSCAR. These judges will be marked with an OSCAR flag. If you see judges to whom you will apply via OSCAR, please indicate that you are applying to these judges by selecting them as well. This will allow the Clerkship Committee and faculty assistants to have a complete list of the judges to whom you will be applying.  (However, do remember that you must separately log into OSCAR to submit your application to the OSCAR judges). 

• We have made every effort to flag the OSCAR judges in CARS to remind you to apply to them via OSCAR; however, as judges may opt into OSCAR at any time, you will occasionally see OSCAR judges in CARS without the OSCAR flag. It is your responsibility to continue to check OSCAR until your applications are released to the judges, and to apply to those judges via OSCAR instead of CARS.

• Again, please remember to notify your recommenders’ secretaries if one of your judges opts into OSCAR late.  If you find an OSCAR judge in CARS that it not properly flagged as an OSCAR judge, please email judicialclerkships@virginia.edu. 

(3)  OSCAR

• Please take your time to review OSCAR's FAQ pages here and here. The information provided therein may contain responses to most of your OSCAR-related questions.

• For technical questions, please contact the OSCAR Help Desk. 

Virginia Law Clerkship Program
judicialclerkships@virginia.edu.

Consider a Clerkship with a Federal Magistrate Judge

A United States Magistrate Judge is a federal trial judge appointed to serve in a U.S. district court for a term of eight years. Federal magistrates  are appointed by the life-tenured federal judges of a district court, who supervise the activities of the magistrate judges by assigning them civil cases for jury or non-jury trial upon consent of the parties. Magistrate judges are heavily involved in alternative dispute resolution and routinely hold settlement conferences in their chambers. Many criminal cases are also assigned to federal magistrate judges.

The Honorable Carol Sandra Moore Wells, Federal Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, will give a talk on the benefits of a clerkship with a federal magistrate judge.  Her discussion will also include an overview of the work of magistrate judges, the daily responsibilities of her law clerks, the application process, and suggestions on how to prepare for and ace interviews.

            Date: Monday, April 21
            Place: Caddell Conference Room
            Time: 12:00PM

Lunch will be served if you confirm attendance at publicservicelaw@virginia.edu by noon, Thursday, April 17. All classes are welcome.

Judge Wells is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law ('85).  From 1985 to 1987, she worked in private practice as an associate attorney with Pincus, Verlin, Hahn & Reich, P.C. From 1987 until 1996, Judge Wells worked for the City of Philadelphia as an Assistant City Solicitor, Deputy City Solicitor, and Senior Attorney. She was appointed as a Magistrate Judge in 1996, and reappointed in 2004.

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The 2008-2009 Dean Acheson Legal Stage Program

The United States Embassy in Luxembourg is accepting applications for the Dean Acheson Legal Stage Program in Luxembourg at the Court of Justice of the European Communities for 2008-2009. The purpose of the Dean Acheson Legal Stage Program is to promote mutual understanding between the peoples of the United States and the European Union in the context of the legal profession. There are three types of stage available: (1) with a Judge of the Court of Justice; (2) with an Advocate General of the Court of Justice; and (3) with a Judge of the Court of First Instance.

There are two possible Dean Acheson Legal Stage periods for 2008-2009: Fall Term (mid-September to mid-December) and Spring Term (mid-February to mid-May). The maximum Stage period is three months due to Visa requirements for non-E.U. citizens. Dean Acheson stagiaires are responsible for the full cost of their transportation, room and board while participating in the Dean Acheson stage program.

Applications must be submitted to the Public Service Center by April 25, 2008. Please download the application here. More information about the program and application requirements are available here.