Law Clerk Addict's Blog
As those of you who currently work for the government know, today is Memorial Day, meaning that clerks and other federal employees do not have to go to work (well, with some exceptions). But some of you may not know that while all federal courts observe the standard federal holidays, employees of some federal courts have local holidays off as well. Here is a small sampling of this year's bonus holidays for some courts:
D. Alaska - Seward's Day [source].
S.D. Cal. - Cesar Chavez Day, Day After Thanksgiving [source].
D. Del. - Good Friday [source].
D. Guam - Liberation Day [source].
D. Haw. - Prince Kuhio Day, King Kamehameha Day, Admissions Day [source].
D. Md. - Day After New Year, Day After Thanksgiving [source].
S.D.N.Y. - Lincoln's Birthday [source].
D.V.I. - Good Friday, Carnival [source].
I have noticed that there has been a large amount of discussion recently (see here, here, and here) in how one can obtain a clerkship in Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and similar jurisdictions. Perhaps surprisingly, there are some resources out there examining this very question. Here are some of the better ones:
* Michael J. Keyser, The Best Kept Secret in the Law: How to Get Paid to Live on a Tropical Island, 15 J. TRANSNAT’L L.& POL’Y 219, 235 (2006) -- this law review article, available for download on the FSU website, provides perhaps the most comprehensive guide to obtaining a clerkship in American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
* Clerks in Paradise -- an article published last year in the American Lawyer discussing clerkships in tropical islands and mentioning what some clerks did after returning to the mainland United States. See also this Above the Law post about the article.
* Law Clerk on Gilligan's Island -- written by a former law clerk for the Supreme Court of Palau (yes, technically not a United States jurisdiction, but close enough to warrant inclusion), this website discusses the author's experience adjusting to both his clerkship and life on a tropical Pacific island.