Litigation or Transactional, Clerking is Best Career Prep

Former clerks urge students to apply -By Lori Craig Thinking of clerking in a federal, state, foreign or international court? It could be the best experience of your legal career, say four former clerks who spoke to USC Law students March 21. The panel event was sponsored by the Career Services Office and the USC Law Board of Councilors’ Clerkship Committee.

David M. Walsh '85

“If you have the opportunity to clerk, you need to clerk because it is absolutely the best job you can have in the law,” said David M. Walsh ’85, a partner at Paul Hastings who clerked for United States District Court Judge Howard B. Turrentine ’39. “If you clerk, you are so much further ahead than the typical [law school graduate] who goes to work at a firm.” Federal court clerks, who spend a year writing briefs and analyzing legal arguments for a judge, see dozens of trials, learn how to analyze cases like a judge, and get to see some really great lawyers in action, Walsh said. Working so closely with one judge, clerks learn what the judge does and does not want to see and hear in the courtroom, how the judge thinks and how he or she decides cases. Clerks leave the experience knowing how important it is for lawyers appearing before judges to understand those personal preferences. Clerking benefits lawyers who wish to work in transactional law, as well. “You will learn how to negotiate deals by seeing those deals pulled apart piece by piece, where every little argument put in turns out to be a problem,” Walsh said. “Your understanding of what can go wrong is so much more advanced if you clerk.” Merete Rietveld, currently a clerk for Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Ramona See and Richard Rico, agreed with Walsh. She started her legal career as a litigation associate at DLA Piper, then volunteered with Public Counsel before becoming a clerk and said she “couldn’t believe I hadn’t done an internship or externship” with a judge sooner in her career.

Merete Rietveld

“It teaches you so much and gives you this incredible insight into the law,” Rietveld said. “You get to work with judges every day, talk with them about their views on the case, talk with them about how counsel’s doing. Every day I see at least 10 cases.” There are more clerkship opportunities at the state level. Rietvled suggested students pursue an externship and attend networking events that judges are expected to attend. The USC Law Board of Councilors Clerkship Committee hosts two such events each year: a fall reception for all 1Ls that is attended by former clerks, alumni, judges and faculty; and a spring reception, named for Judge Turrentine, attended by clerkship-eligible students and a number of judges from the region. Prof. Elizabeth Henneke, USC Law’s Audrey Irmas Clinical Teaching Fellow, and Prof. Hannah Garry, director of the USC International Human Rights Clinic, spoke about foreign and international clerkships. Henneke clerked for the South Africa Constitutional Court as well as for Judge Edward C. Prado on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. Working in South Africa was “an amazing opportunity. It’s a new democracy, thriving,” Henneke said. The country’s constitution is less than 15 years old and combines civil law, common law and tribal law traditions. “You get to work with judges who are true revolutionaries. You also get to interpret provisions of the constitution that have never been interpreted before by the court.” Henneke addressed some differences that come with clerking for a foreign court. Clerkships can vary in length and are unpaid, the application process is longer, and life in a city like Johannesburg is not for everyone.

Elizabeth Henneke

Garry, who has clerked for 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Rosemary Barkett and for two international criminal tribunals, said the nature of working in a trial chamber or appellate chamber of a tribunal is similar to working in U.S. District Court or the Court of Appeals. However, students aspiring to clerk in a tribunal or the International Court of Justice (ICJ) do need to have some background in international law. In Garry’s case, she obtained that expertise by taking every international law course she could during law school and studying international law in graduate school. She also had work experience in international arbitration and refugee law. It is also helpful for clerks to know a second language, although not required – the exception is at the ICJ where working knowledge of French and English is required. Garry said clerking with the international criminal tribunals was “the best time of my life.” “I worked with an Italian judge, so on top of the international law you’re working with and applying, you also get to work cross-culturally,” said Garry, who worked on the Slobodan Milosevic case while with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. “The international criminal tribunals are fabulous in terms of the cases you get to work on. You work on these high profile cases and you’re working to see justice done in the perpetration of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.” For more information on applying for clerkships, contact Assistant Director of Career Services Ronald Han.