Although each individual judge may differ slightly in the materials required to apply for a judicial clerkship, in general an application consists of a cover letter, résumé, law school transcript, writing sample and letters of recommendation.
The sample cover letters should be used as templates
only so that all letters from the Law School do not look alike.
The first example is most appropriate for applications to the federal
appellate level, at which judges tend to care less about geographic
ties. The other two examples are more appropriate for
applications to the federal
district and state court judges because they refer to geographic ties
(which tend to be more important at those levels). Aside from
this
substantive difference based on the type of court, each letter has
slightly
different wording for the basic elements of a clerkship cover
letter.
