Clerkships: The Virginia Way

The Law School upholds Thomas Jefferson’s conviction that lawyers have a special obligation to serve the public interest. In fact, every dean that I have ever met is quick to point out the importance of public service. And, all of us at the Foundation make a big deal of the Virginia Loan Forgiveness Program and we are proud of everyone affiliated with the Public Service Center.

I was surfing the Internet a few days ago and found this very interesting ranking regarding judicial clerkships, specifically federal appellate judicial clerks.

As you can see, Virginia is tied for 4th.

I spoke to Professor Micah Schwartzman (our faculty representative who tracks clerkship placements) about the reliability and accuracy of these rankings and he assured me that we have made gains in federal appellate clerkships.

Counting 3Ls and recent alumni (those within a year or two of graduation), for the 2009-10 term, we have confirmed placements for 25 students (10 3Ls and 15 graduates). It is possible that number will rise over the next couple weeks. Moreover, we still have students interviewing with judges, and there is one additional unconfirmed placement in the Fourth Circuit.

According to Professor Schwartzman, there has been a significant shift in our placement pattern this year, corresponding to a widespread change in the hiring practices of federal circuit judges.

For the last few years, federal judges have tended to hire mostly 3Ls during the fall clerkship process, following the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan. This year a much larger number of federal judges hired recent graduates, who are not covered under the terms of the plan. To see this, you can compare our numbers from the last two years with our preliminary numbers for this year:

2007-08:  19 federal appellate clerks; 14 3Ls + 5 graduates

2008-09:  22 federal appellate clerks; 18 3Ls + 4 graduates

2009-10:  25 federal appellate clerks; 10 3Ls + 15 graduates

Of the 15 graduates who placed this year, the majority (9) are currently clerking in federal district courts. We don't yet have preliminary placement numbers for federal district courts, in part because district court judges frequently hire later in process.

Even if the existing rankings are not 100% accurate because of underreporting or inaccuracies, it’s clear that the Law School stands tall in the eyes of judges across the country.