Law Clerks

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 521.

In the common-law tradition and in American practice prior to the twentieth century, judges functioned without assistance in judicial decision making. There has always been a clerk of the court, a court employee who handles the papers and maintains case files. Judges also have long had secretarial help for typing and other clerical chores.

A law clerk is usually a recent law school graduate. Most clerks have strong academic records in law school. Many appellate judges require experience on a student-edited law school journal. Typically a clerk serves one year, although some serve two. There are few career clerks. The law clerks, sometimes called ‘elbow clerks', is a personal assistant to the judge. In general clerks do legal research, prepare memoranda on the cases, summarizing facts and issues and giving the clerk's analysis, edit drafts of opinions written by the judge, and serve as a sounding board and discussion partner for the judge. Work as a clerk is considered an excellent professional experience for a new law school graduate, a year long transition from the academic to the ‘real' world, with an opportunity to see the workings of the judicial process from the inside.

The work of law clerks in trial courts differ somewhat from that of law clerks in appellate courts. Appellate clerks spend much time in editing, and sometimes drafting, opinions that their judges are assigned to prepare for the court. Trial clerks also draft some memoranda and short opinions, but in addition they assist the judge with motions of all sorts and in pretrial conferences and hearings. They often deal with parties' lawyers to assist the judge in managing his docket. To a considerable extent these different duties reflect the difference between the work of a trial court and that of appellate court.