It’s once again the season that law students apply for judicial clerkships. I clerked at the Court about a decade ago and know that a judicial clerkship can change your whole perspective as an advocate. There isn’t much substitute for seeing how judges really read legal briefs before you try to write your own.

The Texas Supreme Court has posted its clerkship brochure. As the brochure quite rightly notes, the experience for its law clerks is unique:

Unlike most appellate courts, the Texas Supreme Court has discretionary review only of civil cases and almost exclusively among appellate courts permits law clerks to sit in conference for its deliberations. (( Those little words matter. The Court’s civil jurisdiction means that you don’t see death-penalty appeals and, except for the occasional juvenile-justice case, won’t see criminal issues. Discretionary review means, not just that the Court can focus on interesting issues, but that you can start to get a feel for what makes an issue interesting enough to hear. ))

The brochure has the needed details. The Justices are accepting applications now and, according to the brochure, interviews “will generally be scheduled no earlier than mid-September 2011.”