Beware to fancy law firm partners on Wall Street, on Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue, and in downtown Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. This Friday, you should expect even less work than on a normal languid summer Friday from brilliant rising third-year Harvard Law School summer associates. Friday, June 28, is the first date on which many judges will consider 3L students for coveted federal clerkships. The firestorm that Friday’s schedule promises to ignite will eclipse the seasonal withering heat and humidity, but partners who remain calm and flexible will reap benefits.
In April, the working group judges of OSCAR (Online System for Clerkship Application and Review) — a secure, user-friendly online resource that facilitates law clerk hiring — designated June 28, instead of late summer, as the benchmark. The group made this Friday the crucial time for all clerkship matters: the initial date when federal judges can receive applications, conduct interviews and tender offers. The group’s decision apparently was a last-ditch effort to salvage the flagging Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan, which had operated rather effectively since its 2003 institution. The earlier plan had relied on the Tuesday following Labor Day as the time when students first submitted, and judges received, applications. Judges concomitantly were to delay one week before scheduling interviews and then wait another week before holding interviews.
