What Are The Good And The Bad Things About Being A Magistrate Clerk
[00:00:00] Current federal magistrate clerk here, I've been submitting apps for district clerkships for next term but haven't had any luck.
Would it be worth it to also apply to select magistrate clerkships in my home state? I figure that my current role would be of interest, but yeah. I thought the same thing when I submitted a district judge apps. Would this be a career killer or have negative impacts on my career? I had no plans after my current clerkship ends-
Magistrate clerks are good jobs. I think there are good things about them and there are bad things about them.
There's nothing wrong with the federal magistrate clerk. It's a good job. What I would recommend is I think, you're going to be better off if you try to go and get a desk district court clerkship. The reason the district court clerkship is good is that the district court will give you more exposure to different types of motions and writing and things than as a magistrate clerk. And what I recommend with clerkships is if you do want a clerkship and a federal district court clerkship, then you should be applying to a lot of different markets. So instead of just applying to larger-sized markets, you can also apply to smaller ones and in judges there.
When I clerked I thought I was applying to a clerkship in Detroit, [00:01:00] which is where I was from originally, but I ended up working in a courthouse that was, an hour outside of Detroit. Applying to more clerkships can make it much easier.
So that's what I would recommend or just, looking for jobs after that. But certainly working with it as a magistrate clerk is a good position, I it's and it depends also on the market that you're in. Obviously the bigger the market is a magistrate clerk, the more prestigious it is many times.
But you said, would it be worth it to apply to different magistrate court clerkships? I think just doing one clerkship is probably enough. I even say that for federal district court clerks and appellate clerkships sometimes it's people who do two appellate clerkships cause they want to work with an appellate judge.
It's a feeder to a Supreme court justice or something. You can do two different things. One of them, you could be a career clerk, which is a very good job. I'm surprised more people don't do it. You can especially in smaller markets, make a very good living.
You could be a career clerk as a magistrate clerk, or you could also be until your And the judge expires but I wouldn't do more than one clerkship as a federal magistrate clerk. I don't think it's not a career killer.
Nothing's a career killer, by the way, [00:02:00] everything you learn but it's, how do you be more attractive to employers if that's what you're trying to do? And if that's what you're trying to do, I would recommend probably no more than one, unless you want to be a career clerk, which is a good job.
