Externs and Law Clerks are the Future of the Bankruptcy Bar and Bench!

By Hon. Sandra R. Klein, Central District of California

Next month, more than 200 of us will gather in San Diego to celebrate the NCBJ’s 100^th anniversary.  It will be wonderful to see everyone and to acknowledge and reflect on how far we have come.  To ensure that the bankruptcy bar and bench continue to thrive for another 100 years,  we must foster and encourage law students and the next generation of bankruptcy and reorganization lawyers.  

We often lament that the bankruptcy bar is aging and there are fewer young lawyers entering the bankruptcy and reorganization fields.   You might wonder, “What can I do to help?”  Well, you can do a lot!  You can seek out and hire law students as externs to work in your chambers.  Externs are future law clerks, law clerks are future bankruptcy and reorganization lawyers, and bankruptcy and reorganization lawyers are our future colleagues on the bench.   

By this point, you might be thinking, how can I “seek out” law students.  The answer is relatively easy and here are some suggestions for doing so.

• Offer to speak to a local law school class.  Bankruptcy, Secured Transactions, UCC, and Reorganization classes would be ideal.  If a nearby law school does not offer these classes, and if you enjoy teaching, then you could offer to teach or co-teach one of them.  Even if a local law school does not offer any bankruptcy-related classes and teaching is not your thing, you could offer to speak to students in other classes such as a Civil Procedure class or an Ethics class.   

• Offer to organize a lunchtime or evening program with two or three other judges such as a circuit, district, and/or magistrate judge to highlight the benefits of externing for a federal judge.  These programs are fun and low-key ways of introducing students to the world of externing in the federal courts.  They are particularly successful when each judge invites a former extern from the law school to speak about their experience in chambers.  

• Offer to organize and participate in a bankruptcy-focused program to highlight how exciting and fast-paced a career in bankruptcy is.  The program could include a  local consumer and corporate practitioner, a chapter 7 or sub-V trustee, and a member of the US Trustee program, all of whom can highlight the diverse, interesting and exciting opportunities available in the bankruptcy and reorganization fields.  The panelists could explain how new bankruptcy lawyers typically gain courtroom experience much sooner than their civil litigation colleagues.  And they can discuss how bankruptcy practice affords lawyers the opportunity to utilize a diverse array of skills, such as engaging in litigation, transactional work, and negotiations.

• Offer to assist with and participate in the next “Roadways to the Bench: Who Me? A Bankruptcy or Magistrate Judge?”, which I have on good authority is being planned for the fall of 2027.

After you have met and spoken with law students and generated interest in bankruptcy and reorganization careers, what else can you do?

• You can hire law students as externs to spend a semester working with you in chambers.  Externs typically receive course credit rather than a salary, although there are numerous programs that provide funding for law students who are judicial externs.  Stipends might be available from a student’s law school or a bar association.  Since 2021, the NCBJ has done a wonderful job fostering interest in careers in bankruptcy by providing stipends for law students who spend a summer working in a bankruptcy judge’s chambers through Just the Beginning – A Pipeline Organization’s Summer Judicial Internship  Project.   To date, the NCBJ has funded 36 NCBJ Fellowships!  And as a bonus, law students who are selected as NCBJ Fellows receive funds to help defray the cost of attending the annual NCBJ Conference.  By all accounts, the NCBJ Fellows program has been a huge success.  It has inspired the American College of Bankruptcy (ACB) and the International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC) to establish similar programs.  In total 90 law students, who have externed for bankruptcy judges, have received $272,000 in stipends from the NCBJ, the ACB and IWIRC!  It is exciting that the NCBJ was at the forefront of this effort, which helps to ensure that there will be more bankruptcy and reorganization lawyers in the decades to come.  

• You can mentor law students, including those who extern for you and those who might not.  Informal mentoring relationships come naturally when a law student is an extern in your chambers.   More formal mentoring relationships are also possible via a law school, bar association, or other organization.  My alma mater, Loyola Law School, pairs judges and lawyers with first-year law students to help them navigate the beginning of their law school careers.  Local bar associations as well as the NCBJ, through the NCBJ Fellows program, also provide mentorship opportunities for law students.   I had the great fortune of being David Gharkhany’s mentor when he was a member of the 2021 inaugural class of NCBJ Fellows.  Before being selected as a Fellow, David had no interest in a bankruptcy or reorganization career.  After he completed his summer externship in Michael Kaplan’s chambers and attended the NCBJ Annual Conference in Indianapolis, David was all in.  He spent a year as Brian Kenney’s law clerk and since then he has been an associate in the FBT Gibbons Bankruptcy and Restructuring Practice Group in Cincinnati and Denver.  David and I have stayed in touch: every few months we connect via Zoom.  It has been such a pleasure to witness his career successes as a law student, as a bankruptcy court law clerk, and now, as a highly-regarded associate.  And I am thrilled to report that David was recently selected as a 2026 NCBJ Blackshear Presidential Fellow and he will be attending the NCBJ Annual Conference in San Diego!  

• I also recently had the honor of presiding over a swearing-in ceremony at my alma mater.  Afterward, I was thrilled to see several of my former externs and I had the opportunity to meet their families and their friends.  One newly-minted lawyer, Kerong Jin, who was my former extern and a 2024 NCBJ Fellow, was very excited to share that the next day, she was starting her career as an associate in Buchalter’s Insolvency and Financial Law practice group.  Kerong mentioned that she would never have thought of practicing in the bankruptcy and reorganization area if it had not been for her externship and the NCBJ Fellowship!

If we each individually do our part, and if the NCBJ and other organizations continue to do their part, we will ensure that there is continued interest in our field, there will be numerous bankruptcy and reorganization lawyers entering the practice, and the bankruptcy bar and bench will thrive.