Interest in clerkships spurs new UVa law office

More University of Virginia School of Law students and graduates are trying to spend a year or two working for a judge rather than starting out in a firm.

An increased interest in clerkships spurred the creation of an independent Office of Judicial Clerkships at the law school. Students and alumni now have a place to learn more about clerkships and get help with their clerkship applications.

The law school knows of 80 people so far who are starting clerkships in the fall. There were 68 UVa graduates who reported accepting clerkships starting in fall 2008, and 60 who said they would start in fall 2007.

Kevin Donovan, the senior assistant dean for the Career Services Office, said creating a separate clerkship office while maintaining efforts to find law firm jobs seemed like the right move.

“We felt it was most beneficial to our students to have someone strictly devoted to [the clerkship] process,” Donovan said. “We’ve had a number of Supreme Court clerks in recent years and a number of high level appellate clerkships. [The Office of Judicial Clerkships] is just the next logical step.”

Ruth Payne, who is heading up the new office as the director of judicial clerkships, said 130 people have applied for clerkships to begin in 2010, which is an increase from previous years. Although Payne doesn’t attribute an overall increase in clerkship applications to the ailing economy because the trend started before the recession, she said some of the increased interest in 2010 clerkships likely is because of the economic woes.

Students apply for clerkship opportunities a year or more in advance. The National Bureau of Economic Research declared in December that the United States has been in a recession since December 2007.

Payne said the clerkship office will be beneficial for students.

“What we’re hoping is that the students find the office to be a single and very strong resource for them as they go through the clerkship process,” Payne said. “They will have someone who can help them do the best they can as they are navigating the clerkship process.”

Most students do what is known as an “elbow clerkship,” Payne said, in which they work for a judge full-time doing everything from legal research to drafting orders. A clerkship gives a student experience in a courtroom, where few law firm associates tread during their first year on the job.

“The students have a good understanding of the fact that a clerkship will put them in a much stronger position jobwise,” Payne said. “It will give them skills to make them marketable.”

Scott Schwartz soon will start a federal district court clerkship in Alexandria. The 2009 graduate said he worked with Payne while preparing his 90 applications for clerkship jobs.

Schwartz said he wasn’t aware that UVa had created a separate clerkship office, but he thinks it’s a good move.

“I think one of the big pluses may be institutional memory,” Schwartz said. “When there’s an office dedicated just to clerkships, they will know what judges hire UVa students and give good advice to applicants.”

Although Schwartz hasn’t started his first clerkship yet, he already is applying for circuit court clerkships.

The majority of the clerkships that UVa students accepted between 2007 and 2009 were in federal appeals and trial courts. This year, four UVa graduates will be starting clerkships at the Supreme Court.

Now that the clerkship office has been created, Payne said she hopes to engage more students in the process earlier than before.

“We have a lot of really talented students who would benefit from the clerkship experience who we don’t talk to until their career path is set,” Payne said. “We want our students to make the best choices for themselves, but also to make them aware of what’s out there.”