Standards Are Murky As Legal Employers Vet Protesters

“This ‘clearly unserious’ decision [by 13 federal judges boycotting Columbia clerks] highlights a larger problem in law clerk hiring. These judges are merely ‘saying the quiet part out loud,’ since clerkship hiring is already ‘overwhelmingly focused on who judges want to hang out with,’ Aliza Shatzman told LAW360’s Cara Bayles for this piece about the legal industry implications of this school year’s student protests.

Judges’ hiring preferences and practices are “for a variety of reasons, inequitable, and it really perpetuates racial disparities and socioeconomic disparities in hiring," Aliza added.

Furthermore, “federal judges who have written off Columbia may also be shooting themselves in the foot [...] By barring all candidates from one of the nation's top law schools, the judges will penalize even students who agree with them. [These judges] are ‘obviously not looking for credentials and skill alone’” when they hire clerks.