For the first time in nearly a decade, a University of Memphis student has been chosen to clerk for a federal appeals judge. Federal clerkships are among one of the most prestigious in the nation.
Virginia Nesbitt, a third-year law student and the articles editor for The U of M Law Review, will start a year-long judicial clerkship next August for the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals under Honorable H. Emory Widener, Jr. in Abingdon, Va.
Nesbitt said she heard of the position through her husband, Tom, also a third-year law student and symposium editor for the Law Review. Tom found the job on a federal clerk information system.
"I knew Virginia had been very interested in pursuing a judicial clerkship," Tom Nesbitt said. "I thought she might have a good opportunity there."
Nesbitt, who will graduate this spring, said her job would include plenty of writing and research when Widener would have to write an opinion for the Fourth Circuit. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals covers Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
"She will be working full-time for the judge and assisting him in all facets of their duties for a year," said Charles DeWitt III, the assistant dean for career and alumni services.
DeWitt said many opportunities accompany clerkships, but they can also be very selective.
He said about 5 to 13 percent of the law class takes a position as a judicial clerk.
"There are a lot of achievements but this is the top of the pyramid," DeWitt said.
DeWitt added that the majority of the students who apply for these positions come from Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Yale. For those schools, clerkships are an automatic process and sometimes the numbers are astronomical, he said.
Nesbitt said criteria for the job included good standing in the law school, having a membership with the Law Review and submitting two letters of recommendation. However, her personal connections to Widener also helped since her hometown of Bristol, Tenn. is 20 minutes away from Abingdon, she said.
Nesbitt also said earning a clerkship with a federal judge can be very competitive and sometimes luck alone can be the deciding factor.
For The University, this achievement is something that will stand out against other colleges and will give employers a view of the campus' product, DeWitt said.
"It just goes to show you (that) our students are of a caliber that can compete with any student in the nation," he said.
Tom said he is looking for a clerkship for himself, but will follow his wife up to Virginia next year after she graduates in May.
"It's fine with me," he said. "We came here together and we (will) leave together."
Overall, DeWitt said the clerkship was an accomplishment for Nesbitt and a reflection on The University.
