On Clerkships and MLS

Vol 12, Issue 7

ANONYMOUS

So, we did it. We made it to second year, we survived Contracts and PPL, we made it through Property and scraped through Admin.

We go ahead, knowing we’ve worked hard and believing we’ve done well – we’ll be rewarded for this, right?

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Courtesy of WikiCommons

So we apply. We apply broadly, focusing on top tiers that won’t even remember our names. We apply believing that surely, amongst the thousands of applicants, we will stand out. Never mind that there are a thousand applicants, at least some of whom must have similar achievements, right?

We forego our second semester obligations, finishing up the clerkship application period in a daze. Ears ringing, we’ve no idea where the semester is headed, or even what week it is. We hear from our friends who are extending “oh, the Remedies assignment is due on Friday”.

Mid-sems?

How?

Already?

MLS hits us with assignment after assignment as we’re similarly hit with emails detailing our rejection, or, for the lucky, our opportunity to interview. You smile at the positives, clinging to hope while you mourn every new failure. You wonder if you’ll ever get a break, and how MLS, after advertising wellness so heavily throughout our degree, somehow has failed to provide any cushioning against one of the most stressful experiences we will endure. How is it that MLS, knowing full well that many of its students are going through this, has managed to fail us entirely?

As you try to catch up on readings, complete assessments, study for the corps mid-sem and learn anything and everything you can about the firms that agreed to interview you, you begin to wonder if this is what drowning feels like.

Or would drowning feel better?

You pick yourself back up.

“At least I made it here” you tell yourself. “This is my dream”.

You bury yourself in your books, dreaming of a better future. Your phone dings.

You see the header. Your stomach sinks as you read the words:

“Unfortunately, we are sorry to inform you that we will not be taking your application further.”

Oh well. At least you get to laugh at the phrase “unfortunately, we are sorry”.
Maybe clerkship rejections aren’t so bad after all.

​This is the work of a JD student

More articles like this:

•  The Seven Stages of Clerkships

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The rest of this issue:

• Input Not Recognised: Biracial Identity​
• The Men Who Keep Us Fat
• Cutting Through the Fog
• The Law of Punching Nazis