Step 1: Many judges require three letters of recommendation. The first step to request letters of recommendation is to complete and send this form to your professor or supervisor: Clerkship-Recommendation-Form-for-Applicants-updated-2022.01.12.docx (live.com)

You should ask your recommenders to send their completed recommendation letters to law.clerkships@cornell.edu with a CC to Director Stern at rls486@cornell.edu. It is the student’s responsibility, not the clerkship office, to follow up with recommenders to make sure that they send in the letters.

Upon receipt of the final version of your letter, we will format the letter and save it. If your recommender does not yet have an OSCAR account, they must follow this process: Recommender Resources – OSCAR .Your recommender’s work is now done. They only need to submit the recommendation letter to our office one time, not each time you apply to a Judge.

Step 2 if a Judge uses the OSCAR system:

1.      Create a profile for each of your recommenders.

2.      Once the profile is created, the clerkship office will be notified when you request that each recommenders letter be attached to an application.

3.      The clerkship office will attach the appropriate recommendation letters we have received.

Step 2 if a Judge does not accept applications via the OSCAR system, use the process below:

1. Provide us with name of the judge, email address, mailing information, salutation, recommenders’ names, and any special instructions. Students, use Leadership Connect to find judges’ email addresses. (Unfortunately, alumni do not have access to Leadership Connect. Search for email addresses on the courts’ websites, or let us know in your request that you can’t find the address.)
2. If you have already applied at the time you make your request, we will email your letters to the judge’s chambers.
3. If you have not yet applied at the time that you make your request, let us know that in your request. Once you have applied, notify us. We will email your letters so that they arrive after your application materials have been received in chambers.
4. Let us know if the judge requires that we send your application materials to chambers along with your recommendation letters.
5. Let us know if the judge requires that materials must be sent in hard copy rather than email. If we do not hear either way, we will default ot email.

In all cases, we will notify you after we send your letters.