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Hi, I'm applying to clerkships on plan and would appreciate people's thoughts on how much personalization is helpful for cover letters. My school's general advice is to use a standard form letter, unless requested otherwise. However, I am applying to a lot of judges who are interested in applicants with a public interest background (either according to their OSCAR postings or my school's database of PI-interested judges). This is because I plan to be a public defender after clerking and eventually do impact lit related to criminal legal reform. This is probably pretty apparent from my resume (PD internships, clinic work, rec letters and writing sample discuss criminal legal reform), but I would like to quickly mention it in my cover letter. Any thoughts on how to do so briefly and inoffensively? I feel like it's awkward to discuss my career goals that are unrelated to clerking, and I worry that appearing overly pro-defendant could make it seem like I won't be able to be neutral, even to judges that want PI applicants.

For context, I go to HYS, am on law review, and my grades are good but certainly not amazing. I think my commitment to PI is probably one of the more distinctive things about my application, which is why I would like to at least touch on it in my cover letter. Thanks!

I had the same advice from my school’s clerkship office but chose to (1) say I’m interested in clerking for X judge b/c their Y background; and (2) put in a short paragraph (no more than 3 sentences) about my pathway to PI and how clerkship would fit into that. It seemed well-received when I applied.

On the other side of the table, when we were interviewing candidates (with the caveat that every chamber operates differently), I noticed that a lot of cover letters were on the longer side. I personally would read almost everything so I didn’t mind, but I imagine others could unless you really have a lot to say.

In most cases, your resume speaks for itself. (And even better is if your recommenders speak on your behalf).

Clerk with PI background, my two cents from reviewing applications. In addition to briefly explaining how your experiences have led you to clerking, it’s totally fine and, imo, helpful to drop a sentence or two about future plans along the lines of “in the long term, I hope to pursue a career as a federal public defender,” “intend to return to public service,” “work in the federal government,” or “federal litigation relating to XYZ.”

The only things that strike me as weird/annoying is if you state you want to become a judge (as some people inexplicably do) or kind of crassly recite decisions from the judge’s Wikipedia page that seem to tilt one way or another on ideological issues (runs the risk of something having been decided on a complicated procedural issue or weird facts). If the judge had a long career in govt or at a nonprofit shop you can gesture to it in the sense of “I admire your career and hope to similarly XYZ,” but I’d leave it at that.