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Researching Judges for Your Clerkship Interview: Bio/Career Basics

Focused on resources for judicial clerkship candidates who are interviewing with a judge and want to investigate more about the judge and jurisdiction.

Basic bio/career outlines

Almanac of the Federal Judiciary - often includes practitioner commentary about abilities, temperament and demeanor, and lists noteworthy cases.

  • *NEW* Almanac of the Federal Judiciary online
  • via WestLaw - may omit financial disclosure and other information, but provides links to cases mentioned in profile
  • via Intelliconnect - type in judge's name and scroll through results to the "Research Aids" group for AFJ results

Judicial Profiles - 1-2 page articles (sometimes 5+ years old), for state and federal judges in California

The American Bench - for many includes "extracurriculars" such as fraternal or academic societies, civic organizations

TheRobingRoom.com - like Yelp! for judges; not all judges are covered/rated. There certainly are ranters and trolls, but among the dross you can sometimes find real insight, honest and unbiased evaluations, or interesting bits of trivia about a judge's pet peeves and personality quirks. Worth a look if you have internet access while waiting at the airport.

Key Resources

WestLaw Profiler - see tables showing various aspects of the judge's career.
  • WestLaw > type Profiler > select "Profiler - Profiles of Attorneys and Judges" > type first and last name > select from list of individuals (3-min. video)
    • Reports tab > Litigation History Report (cases by type, industry, etc.), Judicial Reversal Report (outcomes on appeal), and reports analyzing results of expert witness challenges and pretrial motions
    • References tab > filter for Secondary Sources (references to your judge in articles, etc.)

Confirmation hearings - for federal judges, or anyone who has been nominated for a federal judgeship, search Proquest Congressional:

  • Library Home page > Top Databases > Proquest Congressional > Advanced Search > select from drop-down menu to search in Witness field > type in first and last name (2-min. video)
    • you can limit the time period of your search to the Congress or year in which your judge was appointed. But note this may miss other hearings of interest!
  • See table of contents for pages where the nominee was introduced, responded to questions from the Senate committee, or provided information on a biographical questionnaire form.
  • Your judge may have appeared before Congress on other issues, which may give you additional insight about your judge's interests, expertise, and other career background.

Literature search

Perform a basic literature search for your judge as author:

  • search Lawcat - e.g., a:liu, goodwin
  • search Index to Legal Peridoicals and Books - e.g., AU william w schwarzer
  • search LegalTrac for  your judge as author - e.g., Author field > "edward m. chen"
  • search Westlaw for your judge as author - AU(sonia w/3 sotomayor)

You may not want to read all of these materials, but just scan titles and subject headings to see what topics your judge has written about.

Data Deep Dive

Judge Analytics (on Ravel Law, a research platform focusing on visualizations of data about legal materials) is a tool for analyzing a judge's decisional patterns; it provides data on precedent-citation analysis and issue- and trend-tracking based on her opinions and ruling/voting behavior

  • when using Judge Analytics for the first time, sign up for a Ravel Law account using your official law school email address; once it is set up, you will be prompted to log in any time you access the Judge Analytics portion of Ravel Law
  • search for your judge's last name and select under "Judges" from the drop-down list
  • coverage includes federal judges and currently sitting state judges at supreme court and intermediate appellate levels (and some state trial judges)

Subject Guide

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