Are Judicial Clerkships A Hazard, Or Is There A Clerkship for Everybody? - Above the Law

"After I was harassed and fired from my clerkship, I learned WashU Law administrators and professors knew the judge who harassed me had harassed another alum a few years earlier - but chose not to share that with me before I accepted the clerkship. I could have gotten over that, but for the fact that three separate deans subsequently told me they "don't believe" I was mistreated by the judge I worked for."

"That framing stuck with me as LAP struggled to convinced law schools to subscribe to our Clerkships Database ("Glassdoor for Judges"). Some even tried to bar students from subscribing. Before LAP launched the Clerkships Database - serving thousands of students annually while collecting data on the incidence of negative versus positive clerkship experiences - school administrators framed LAP as "dissuading" students from clerking."

"I encourage students to be mindful of who they clerk for and to be empowered consumers of clerkship information, in ways they historically were not. I discourage applicants from clerking for abusive judges. It's disturbing that schools refuse to warn students about abusive judges, and all but two refuse to subscribe to LAP's database - showing how little they care about students' well-being, and forcing students to pay individually."

An alum experienced harassment and termination during a judicial clerkship and discovered that Washington University School of Law administrators and professors had known about prior harassment by the same judge but did not disclose it before the clerkship offer. Three successive deans told the alum they did not believe the mistreatment, and the law school canceled four Legal Accountability Project events over three years. Some faculty framed clerkships as universally suitable while several schools attempted to bar student access to the Clerkships Database. The Clerkships Database serves thousands, documents positive and negative clerkship experiences, and requires students to pay $50 for access.

Read at Above the Law