Miles LonginoProfessor HodginsCollege Success 101 01/?/2018 My career goal as of now is to be a Judicial Law Clerk which will get my foot in the door to be an attorney. This may change later on considering I am still in high school. Through research I have found that this career goal will take longer to achieve ,in terms of school, compared to other careers. In order to achieve my career goal, I will have to be dedicated to more than four years of postsecondary education. Becoming a Judicial Law Clerk takes more than just receiving a Bachelor? Degree.  My decision to  pursue a career as a Judicial Law Clerk has been a challenging and confusing one but it has helped me decide my career goal, decide what I want to gain from my secondary education, and plan out decisively how to reach my career goal.

I started the process of finding what my career goal would be by taking the Holland Code Quiz.  This survey consisted of three different sections that if you were to answer truefly would generate a list of careers that would suit you the best. Three of my top careers that was listed were bookkeeper, librarian, and Judicial Law Clerk.

 I also took The Princeton Review Career Quiz.  It asked me different sceneries of what my personality was like.  The  survey showed that my interests was administration.  That included organizing and systematizing.  The career types for this assessment was bookkeeper, accountant, and corporate lawyer.  Another assessment I took was through Georgia Futures.  The assessment was O*NET Interest Profiler.

 The score revealed that my interest profile was Conventional.  The description was that people with a high conventional score like to work in a career that follows set procedures and routines and prefer working with information and paying attention to detail.  After taking multiple assessments in order to learn more about myself, I researched the different careers that matched my likes and dislikes.  This research lead me to Judicial Law Clerk. The Occupational Outlook handbook had very little information about Judicial Law Clerk.  Although hundreds of occupations is covered in the Handbook, my career goal was one listed for Data for occupations not covered in detail.

 I did learn from the information that the career is one that ¨assists judges in court or by conducting and preparing legal documents.” ( Occupational Outlook Handbook)   As I have been researching, I found an article that was a panel discussion of Judges and their perspective on Law Clerks. The discussion had questions about hiring of law clerks, how law clerks were utilized, and the influence the Law clerks had. One statement that JUDGE JAMES WYNN made when asked about the Law Clerk Influence really stood out to me, “The clerk is really an extension of the judge. I tell my clerk’s that they’ve got one job —and they realize it when they come in —that job is to make the judge look good. Wherever they go for the rest of their lives, they will be identified in connection with their judge.

” (13).  As I thought about the career and what it would mean to be a Judicial Law Clerk, this statement made me realize that my job would be to make the judge look good.  I want to help others and feel like my career choice is important to others and not just about myself.   Overall Judicial Law Clerk is found to be a great career.  One NALP (National Association for Law Placement) study found that 97% of judicial clerks say they would still choose to be a clerk.  However with every job it has its pros and cons. The two pros for the career would be the importance of public service and the experience of the job. The job is an important public service which is definitely a pro.

 I would help ensure  that cases are carefully considered.  In different types of trials it could mean my job would make the difference of someone going to prison or going home  which would be a civil trial or lots of money  could be at stake in civil trial.  Helping others would be a huge reward for me. The experience I would gain as the judicial clerk is also another pro.  I would be able to improve my skills that would be useful to me if I want to become an attorney.  The job allows me to gain better understanding of trial procedures, good research and writing skills that are essential to practicing law.   The two cons of being a Judicial Law Clerk would be getting along with the judge and working under pressure.

One con is not getting along with the judge.   The clerk works closely with judges concerning legal questions or granting other orders.   Some judges have a reputation of being difficult to work with, so it is highly recommended to research the judges before I apply for the job.  Another con to the job would be having to work under pressure.

After researching, I have found that this particular job requires a lot of deadlines, and I would need to be able to work under pressure. The lawyers carry heavy caseloads and expect their clerks to handle multiple tasks.  In order to be law clerk I must be extremely well-organized, and able to work well under pressure.

  Growing up my dad has worked in the Clerk’s Office at the courthouse.  Over the years, I have been around and gotten to know a lot of attorneys and judges.  By meeting and getting to know a lot of these attorney’s, I thought that it was something I was interested in.  I also enjoyed my Government Civics AP class which made me become more aware of how the Judicial System works.  However I did move away from the idea of being an attorney, because I felt like my introvert personality would not be successful as an attorney.  However during the research of my career goal and plan, I have learned that there are different forms of law.

 I necessarily don’t have to be in front of the court or people.  The Judicial Law Clerk works behind the scenes.  I was able to interview Mrs. Kerry Jordan who is a Judicial Law Clerk for a Supreme Court Judge for the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit.  I learned a lot from my interview with her about my career choice.  I found it interesting how she feels about her career and the path she took to achieve her goal.  It did open my eyes about how long it will take for me to achieve my  goal.

This interview allowed me to see that I  can choose any career path and get a bachelors in a different area besides Criminal Justice and still attend law school.  For example, Mrs. Jordan received a bachelors in english before attending law school.  The bachelors in English that she receives helps her with the writing requirements in her current job. She has just recently taken the bar and began her job as a Judicial Law Clerk.  I feel that her being fresh out of college is helpful for me to see the realistic steps in achieving my goal and according to her it is very rewarding. Mrs. Jordan was very open to having me visit and talk more with her about her career.

 I believe that Mrs. Jordan was a great source of information and knowledge about what it takes to actually becoming an attorney.   Becoming a Judicial Law Clerk would mean that I would need to obtain a doctoral or professional degree. I would also need  to pass the state bar exam.   This career is hard to find a position in so the more education I have the better chance I have to finding a position. Although there is no specific courses to take before applying for law school it is suggested to receive a Pre-Law Major.  Law school is very difficult to get into, so I would need to have a high GPA from my bachelor’s degree.  There are many four year state institutions that also have a law school.

 The three that I looked at were Mercer University School of Law, University of Georgia School of Law, and Emory Law.  Mrs. Jordan, the Judicial Clerk I interviewed, received her bachelors of arts in English from University of Georgia and her Juris Doctorate from Mercer Law.  The financial burden will be immense  because of having to receive a bachelors and a Doctorate degree. At this stage of my education, I feel I am ahead of the game by using the state’s move on when ready program to gain my associates degree when I graduate from high school. This will help with two years of my core classes being paid for.  With good grades I hope to take advantage of the Zell Miller Scholarship which will assist with  my Bachelor’s degree.

My parents have already invested in my college education by starting a 529 college savings plan when I was in elementary school.  I continually monitor scholarship posting through my high school counseling department that will be beneficial to helping with the financial hardship.  If I gain my associates degree when I graduate from high school, then I will have two years remaining to receive my bachelors degree.  The next step will be Law school.  If I attend Law School as a full time student, I can finish in three years.  Looking at the big picture, it will take me five years to complete my education to be able to pursue my dream of becoming a Judicial Law Clerk.

  My decision to  pursue a career as a Judicial Law Clerk has been a challenging and confusing one but it has helped me decide my career goal, decide what I want to gain from my secondary education, and plan out decisively how to reach my career goal. Due to accomplishing this project it has become clear to me all of the available careers that I could choose to pursue. Once I took the Holland Code Quiz it gave me a plethora of careers that would match up to my personality type according to the answers I gave to the questions that were provided. I never really thought about all the careers that I could pursue. For example when I was looking over the list I didn’t even realize that a bookkeeper was a career. After looking over the career choices I made a decision that a Judicial Law Clerk looked very intriguing, mainly after researching what it is. I decided after thorough research and my interview that it is very clear that it is a career that I am willing to strive for.

My research and interview also made it clear as to what the requirements will be of me in order to achieve my goal. One example of this is that my interview made it clear that I can only become a Judicial Law Clerk if I first become an attorney of law. I also learned about the many, many years it will take in school to get to the goal I have set but in the end it will be worth it in terms of career and even pay.

I will be different in terms of my focus on one goal because before I started this project I had no clue what I was going to do in college and my future did not have direction but now that I have chosen a career goal to pursue it does.