State: Minorities finding clerkships key to law careers

In her first year at Stetson University College of Law, Joanna Garcia-Deering attended a noonday seminar on clerkships -- not because she really cared, but because it earned her the chance to turn in a future class assignment late without penalty.

Garcia-Deering, 26, wasn't looking to build a career as a law clerk; she was still trying to figure out basic differences in court systems and, on a personal level, how she would fit in at Stetson as a Hispanic woman.

But she heard a professor say the school's internship program could lead to a federal clerkship, which in turn could lead to a shining career in appellate law.

That ultimately was what Garcia-Deering wanted. She took the professor's advice and next month will begin a federal clerkship in Tampa.

"Had I not gone into the internship, I would not be a clerk in January. So it's amazing," said Garcia-Deering, who graduated this month from Stetson.

That is the kind of opportunity that national lawyers groups want more schools to offer. It is a critical component to diversifying the pool of law clerk applicants.

The National Association for Law Placement and the American Bar Association included that recommendation in a study released earlier this year that showed minorities had made little progress in obtaining judicial clerkships, positions that can put even bright, promising attorneys on a faster track.

Clerkships are prestigious because clerks work closely with judges, drafting opinions, debating legal issues and interacting with some of the nation's best attorneys. Clerkships can last a year or two or even a lifetime, depending on the judge.

Generally, the circle of law clerks, especially at the federal level, has lacked diversity.

The study showed that minorities held 15 percent of all judicial clerkships, including federal and state, compared to the minority student population of 20 percent.

In six of the 12 federal circuits -- including the 11th Circuit that encompasses Florida -- the percentage of clerkships held by minorities has dropped, according to the study. Between 1994 and 1998, minority clerks have decreased from 14 percent to 10 percent of the total in Florida. The study was completed two years after the U.S. Supreme Court was lambasted by civil rights leaders for hiring mostly white men as law clerks. It also was reported that white women are better represented than any ethnic minority group at the Supreme Court.

The justices, for the most part, defended their hiring record and rejected suggestions from minority Bar associations to widen the pool of applicants.

But that criticism laid the framework for a study of the entire judicial clerkship system, said Luke Bierman, director of the ABA Justice Center.

It also laid the foundation for two ABA programs that will allow more judges to hire minority clerks and create internships for minority students.

"There never before had been a national study on judicial clerkships," said Debra Strauss, a former director of judicial clerkship counseling at Yale Law School and the National Association for Law Placement'sproject director.

"Even advising students, everything was anecdotal and instinctive," she said."The more I reached out on a national forum, and people came to me for advice, the more I realized how little information was out there. Everything was really begging for a study of this sort."

Particularly noteworthy in the study, Strauss said, was that minority applicants were not being rejected in any disproportionate numbers, but the minority applicant pool was small.

The report said most law schools surveyed offered no specialized system to prepare students for clerkships and no support programs for women and students of color.

Probing the law clerk diversity issue revealed other shortcomings.

"(The study) became much more broad than diversity," Strauss said.

It also revealed varying guidelines and application requirements, lack of information on individual judges and the difficulty in getting valid recommendations because the deadlines were generally early in students' law school careers.Law clerks who first had internships, the study revealed, benefited tremendously from that experience.

Michelle Smith, 34, a recent Stetson graduate, applied for an internship because "everybody said, "Ooh, you should do one.' It was one of those career moves. I didn't know if I would like it."

Smith, who now is a clerk with the 5th District Court of Appeal, did her first internship in federal court in Tampa. It was a way in the door for her clerkship.

"Probably if it hadn't been for the first internship, I never ever would have applied for clerkship because I didn't think I'd enjoy sitting behind a desk reading briefs all day long and researching law," said Smith.

Now, information about clerkships seems to be more readily available. The report lists several online resources for students, including the federal government's Administrative Office database containing vacancies and judges' requirements (www.uscourts.gov) and another site designed to be a central source of information and advice on clerkships (www.judicialclerkships.com).

Some Florida law schools have taken steps to increase the applicant pool.At the University of Florida, for example, there is now a coordinator for judicial clerkships and externships.

Nancy Hanewicz said the school holds seminars, and she maintains a computer list for students interested in clerkships.

"We want to take all appropriate steps to make sure that these opportunities are available to all our students," she said.

Florida State University law students have benefited from the state Supreme Court's commitment to diversity, said Stephanie Redfearn, assistant dean for academic affairs at the law school.

Last year, then-Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Major B. Harding formed a 13-member equal opportunity committee of judges, court administrators and attorneys. The group is developing strategies to increase minority representation among all court staff members, including law clerks.

Currently, about 18 percent of the 27 state Supreme Court's clerks are minorities.

"He made a concerted effort to get more diversity among law clerks, so he reached out to us," Redfearn said. Justices participate in panels the school sponsors, she said.

Darby Dickerson, an associate dean at Stetson, compiled a 36-page judicial clerkship guide available on the school's Web site. The school offers seminars and mock clerkship interviews.

"There wasn't a focus," Dickerson said. "We just thought it was important so that students from the very first year know what to expect." The school also has a judicial internship program, one of the recommendations in the report, in Florida's state and federal courts. The interns typically make stellar clerks because of their experience.

Stetson also benefits from an 11-year-old internship program with the Middle District of Florida that allows students to get an up-close look at the federal legal system. The district does not collect data on interns' race, but it does track gender. There have been 244 men and 334 women.

However, U.S. District Chief Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich said one of the toughest challenges the government faces is the whopping salaries that private firms can offer top law graduates.

At a judges' meeting, she heard of a law graduate turning down a clerkship -- which usually will pay between $36,000 and $40,000 for graduates with no experience -- for a $300,000 starting salary.

ABA -- Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession

National Association for Law Placement website

www.uscourts.gov

www.judicialclerkships.com

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk

Minorities finding clerkships key to law careers

Law clerks get to work closely with judges and interact with top attorneys. A clerkship can put a young attorney on the fast track.

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