Interview Questions to Hire Law Clerk

Lawyers and judges are already busy as it is, and they need help to prepare for cases. Law clerks will advise and assist them, such as preparing briefs, legal memoranda, or statements of issues involved in cases.

Law clerk candidates must be critical thinkers with great writing abilities, as well as a strong desire to create trustworthy legal reports to assist lawyers and judges. 

You also need to ensure that they have excellent time management and listening abilities, as well as precision and accuracy.

These questions below will help give you a head start in interviewing potential candidates.

Questions to Gauge Their Skill Sets

• Was there a time when you struggled to meet a deadline? What happened, and how did you solve it?
• How do you plan, prioritize, and execute your legal research and analysis?
• Walk me through a time when you needed to do more than your job description to complete a task. What was the result?
• How do you handle a situation dealing with a difficult person?
• Tell me the time when your investigation made a case report more valuable. How did that affect the outcome?
• Was there a time your listening skill affected the outcome of a case or your work? What happened?
• What is your daily routine as a law clerk?

Behavioral Questions

• How would you explain complex legal issues to those who don’t have a legal background?
• How do you think working as an appellate court law clerk will benefit your legal career?
• In your resume, you’ve worked in [past case]. How do you know you're judging a case impartially?
• What was your favorite or least favorite case studied, and why?

Conclusion

Law clerks help and advise lawyers and judges on their main responsibilities. This means they need to be able to interpret laws, rulings as well as regulations for specific cases.

Typically, they need to have extensive research skills to prepare memoranda and briefs with accurate information on specific cases.

Not only that, candidates should have excellent listening skills as they need to attend court sessions to listen and record critical information.

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