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Is it totally inappropriate to contact a current clerk? A guy I knew in law school (we weren't best friends, but we would always say hi in the halls, etc) is currently clerking for a judge that is at the top of my list. If I reached out to him, he'd likely pull my app and give it extra attention, so I'd hate to lose out on that opportunity. But I have heard that reaching out to current clerks is not appropriate.

Any thoughts?

Go for it. Don't be annoying or anything but let him know you're interested in the job.

I think it's totally appropriate; people contacted me when I was clerking. If someone I had literally no connection to contacted me it would be a little weird, but as long as you've met them or you share a law school or something, I think it's totally fine.

I would be glad to talk to anyone who contacted me about my clerkship. I think everyone clerk I know at my court would be too. No idea why it would be inappropriate.

Anonymous User wrote:Is it totally inappropriate to contact a current clerk? A guy I knew in law school (we weren't best friends, but we would always say hi in the halls, etc) is currently clerking for a judge that is at the top of my list. If I reached out to him, he'd likely pull my app and give it extra attention, so I'd hate to lose out on that opportunity. But I have heard that reaching out to current clerks is not appropriate.

Any thoughts?

I agree, you should go for it. The only time I think it would be inappropriate to directly contact a law clerk is if you are an attorney in a case and the judge has a no contact policy with the law clerks. You can always ask your law school OCS for assistance. The OCS at my school recently contacted me to see if I would be willing to talk to a potential candidate for my judge.