Tax, Trade, and Military Justice: A Peek into 3 Specialty Courts
Photo Source: Author
To say that many law school students are interested in clerking is an understatement, and the School’s Office of Judicial Clerkships further cultivated interest this past week by hosting a Meet the Judges panel featuring three judges from specialty courts.
The three-judge panel (not that kind of panel) represented the Court of International Trade, the Tax Court, and the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. The judges spent the first half of the lunch event explaining the jurisdiction, nuances, and subject matter of their courts, then spent the remaining time fielding questions on the clerkship experience and application process.
Judge Lisa Wang of the United States Court of International Trade helped shed light on a court that, according to the Wall Street Journal, “[m]ost lawyers will get out of law school without knowing . . . exists.”[1] While this may have been true in the past, public awareness of the Court has sharply risen this year as laypeople and lawyers alike eagerly track its decisions on the Trump Administration’s unprecedented tariff strategy. The Court of International Trade is a highly technical federal trial court with fourteen sitting judges. It considers questions ranging from how Customs and Border Patrol should classify imported goods to whether foreign companies have engaged in unfair trade practices. Judge Wang recommended clerkships at the Court for students interested in appellate-like work where “part of [the work] is diplomacy and part of it is how the U.S. interprets its international obligations.” Because parties to disputes before the Court are often foreign states or companies, the Court is in a unique position of interpreting domestic and international law while also playing a subtle role in impacting foreign relations.
Judge Cary Douglas Pugh ’94 of the United States Tax Court spoke next, giving the audience “a heavy dose of tax.” According to Judge Pugh, the Tax Court generally deals with tax law in the same way that a district court would (and even follows circuit precedent), but is accessed by litigants who don’t want to pay the disputed tax before litigating (in contrast to a district court, where they would have to pay ahead of time). There are currently eighteen sitting judges on the Tax Court, and these judges work exclusively on bench trials without the aid of juries. Students interested in clerking for the Tax Court can expect to experience the flavor of appellate practice in a trial setting. The biggest obstacle to clerking for Judge Pugh specifically? For diehard UVA fans, this may be the promise that clerks “will be exposed to Duke basketball.”[2]
Rounding off the panel was Judge M. Tia Johnson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which turns seventy-five years old this year. This Article I court deals with the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), enacted in 1950, which forms the foundation of the country’s military justice system. Part of the fun of working for this court is that, because the Code is frequently updated by Congress, clerks often deal with cases of first impression and novel statutes. This doesn’t mean that precedent doesn’t play an important role, but it does mean that clerks must glean what aspects of precedent are still relevant to statutes that are frequently changing. Another interesting quirk to the work is that there are several crimes that apply to servicemembers that don’t apply to civilians.[3] Interested in the Court but have no military experience? Fear not, because none is required. Candidates simply interested in military justice and eager to handle a lot of criminal cases are encouraged to apply.
After pitching us on why each of their courts is the best one to clerk for, the judges offered some advice to prospective clerks eager to spend a year steeped in tax, trade, or military justice. The advice was remarkably similar across all three judges, who emphasized personality, voice, and a crisp story on what draws you to their court. The judges particularly encouraged students to spend a lot of time on their cover letters and to showcase their personalities in their applications and interviews. A judge’s chambers can be an intimate work environment, so it’s a good idea to give a sense of what it’s like to work with you in a small, collaborative setting. Good candidates are excited to refine their advocacy skills and unafraid to advocate for their view of the law. Excellent candidates are those that can strike the right balance between being a self-starter and tapping others for help. The judges also weighed in on the rising number of applicants who have spent several years working as lawyers before applying for clerkships. While this trend is a force at play, the judges stressed that “they’re on the same footing as everyone else who’s applying.”
For those interested in applying, Trade likes to hire off-cycle, Tax’s usual window is between August and September, and Armed Forces usually posts in early March. Students planning to apply to any of these courts should visit OSCAR for up-to-date information.
[1] https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/court-of-international-trade-edb2da94?mod=livecoverage_web.
[2] https://www.ustaxcourt.gov/judges/15/pugh/.
[3] See, e.g., UCMJ Article 134 (criminalizing adultery).
Staff Editor — Yousuf Rehman ’28
yousuf@virginia.edu