Upcoming Critical Dates for OSCAR Version 4

April 22 - 24, 2008
Recommender accounts that have not registered any activity since October 31, 2007 will be archived.

April 25, 2008 - Ongoing
Law school administrators upload new Master Recommender Directories.

May 2, 2008 (Friday)
The Federal Law Clerk Information System (FLCIS) will sunset.

May 5, 2008 (Monday)
Roll out OSCAR Version 4 to all judges, applicants, recommenders, and law school administrators.

Note: May 5 will be the first date that new OSCAR participating judges will be able to begin to post their clerkship positions. (Judges with existing OSCAR accounts could post clerkship positions at any time before the rollout.)

NOTE: OSCAR will be available to the current OSCAR participating judges and eligible applicants up to Friday May 2, 2008. The system will temporarily be shutdown over the May 2nd weekend so that Version 4 can be rolled out on Monday May 5, 2008. Law school alumni and current third-year students will be able to register for OSCAR and submit applications prior to the rollout; those registrations and applications will not be affected by the rollout. Students in the class of 2009 will not be able to register for an OSCAR account until May 5, 2008.

How Can I Access the OSCAR Website?

OSCAR will be accessible via the www.uscourts.gov website on the Employment webpage. With the transition of OSCAR to a nationally supported application, a new website address will be rolled out. To access OSCAR, users will need to go to the new OSCAR website address:
http://oscar.uscourts.gov.

If users go to the old address, they will be automatically forwarded to this new address.

Will Users with Existing OSCAR Accounts Have to Re-Register?

Users with active accounts will not have to reregister. Law School Administrators will be able to login with their current usernames and passwords. Applicants who have not used their OSCAR accounts since October 31, 2007, will be required to complete a modified registration form the first time they log into Version 4; however, all their documents, except the grade sheet, will still be available to them. Recommenders who are not archived will continue to use their current usernames and passwords and have access to their completed letters and templates. Archived recommenders will have to receive new login information and will not have access to their documents.

How will the Applications be Available to Judges?

Unlike previous years, both third-year students and alumni applicants must affirmatively finalize their applications in OSCAR before they will be available to judges. Until they are finalized they will be stored as drafts and can be modified at any time. Applicants can finalize their applications at any time they wish; final alumni applications will be immediately viewable by judges. Final applications submitted by third year law students will be released to the judges in accordance with the Law Clerk Hiring Plan schedule (September 3, 2008). Applicants will be able to finalize their completed applications as a batch option. NOTE: Once the applications are final, they cannot be modified by the applicant, law school administrator, or OSCAR staff. Only a judge can "unlock" an application by sending an electronic request to an applicant to update their application. Upon receipt of the electronic request, an applicant can update the document(s) according to the judge's request.

How Will the Federal Law Clerk Information System (FLCIS) Be Integrated into OSCAR?

OSCAR is now the single, centralized resource for notice of available clerkships, clerkship application information, and law clerk employment information. OSCAR Version 4 will accommodate judges who choose to accept clerkship applications electronically, judges who want to continue to receive only paper applications, and judges who wish to advise applicants that they do not have a clerkship vacancy.

OSCAR 4.0 will open to an INFORMATIONAL WEB PAGE that will not require a login. Visitors will be able to access the following:

• Instructions for using the OSCAR informational website.
• General information about clerking (duties, salary/benefits, etc.).
• Links to other informational websites (e.g., the AO’s Understanding the Federal Courts, Federal Judicial Center, and Judiciary’s Employment Web Page).
• Judges/Clerkships Tab which will include a comprehensive list of judges:
  • Basic information—name, judge type, city—for each judge will be shown on the list
  • Judges who fill out a profile will also be able to indicate whether they accept electronic applications or paper applications, or whether they are not hiring clerks.
  • Judges will be able to list their clerkship vacancies, including specific requirements and terms.
  • Judges who choose not to complete a profile will be listed with the notation "No information available."
  • Those judges who accept electronic applications will also have a link to the OSCAR login screen on their clerkship details page.
  • Visitors will be able to select judges and print or export to Excel a list with the basic judge information.
• Applicant Registration Tab which will permit applicants to create their profiles for electronic applications.
• Login Tab for accessing the electronic application section.

Major Changes in the Applicants Interface:

• For all applicants (third year students and alumni), submitting an application will require three steps. Applicants will first (1) create an application by submitting a resume and other documents and selecting their recommenders. Applicants will then (2) confirm their document and recommender choices, which triggers recommendation requests to their recommenders. Applicants will lastly (3) finalize their applications, which makes them available to judges (immediately for 2008 or earlier graduates, on 09/03/08 for 2009 graduates). Neither student nor graduate applications can be changed once finalized.
• Judges have the flexibility to create more than one clerkship opening for the same term. This allows the judges to designate different start dates or other materially different terms. Therefore a judge may have multiple clerkship openings for clerkships with different start dates or even identical positions. To be certain of being considered for each of a judge’s open positions, applicants will need to submit an application for all of a judge’s listed positions, even if those positions are identical.
• The existing online editor for the creation of cover letters will be modified to display the merge codes for the address block and salutation line within the text box. The user will be able to delete these merge codes if desired.
• OSCAR will provide an online editor for applicants to type up their law school grade sheets, undergraduate grade sheets, and other grade sheets within the system. Applicants will NOT be able to upload any document to the system for grade sheets. The online editor will display a fillable form with columns for course name, professor’s name, grades, and a comments box. OSCAR will have three categories for grade sheets: law school grade sheets, undergraduate grade sheets, and other grade sheets, and judges will be able to designate which types of grades sheet applicants should submit.
• The Judges Tab (formerly Clerkships Tab) will now contain a new sub-tab called “Applications” which will enable applicants to directly view their applications. The Applications tab will display judge name, .pdf formatted application packet (without the recommendation letters), document icons, clerkship term, judge status, status of application (“D” for Draft or “F” for Final), and recommendation letter status. Applicants will be able to release applications to some or all of the judges under the Batch Option Feature.
• OSCAR will generate .pdf packets of the application (minus the recommendation letters) upon upload for preview by the applicant. When finalizing an application, the confirmation page will contain a link to the entire application packet so that applicants can review the packet as the judge will see it (no longer as individual documents).
• Under the Judges Tab (formerly, Clerkships Tab), applicants will be able to perform searches on the latest postings of new/modified posted positions and closed positions. This search function will allow the user to select the last 7 days, last 30 days, or since a specific date.

Recommenders’ Interface – Major Changes

• Multiple Positions with Same Judge. As explained above, judges with multiple clerkship positions may choose to list each position separately. If an applicant then applies for multiple positions with a single judge, how does this appear in the recommenders’ interface? When the recommender (or assistant) first logs in, he will see the list of applicants who identified him as a recommender. When he clicks on an applicant’s name and views the Submit Recommendations tab, he will see each judge listed only once and can proceed to upload a single recommendation as in past years. But when he gets to the confirmation screen that displays a PDF icon for each separate letter, he will see a judge’s name listed more than once if the applicant applied for more than one position with that judge. Once the recommendations are finalized, if he clicks into the Completed Recommendations tab, he will see a judge’s name listed more than once if the applicant applied for more than one position with that judge.
• Merge Codes and Footer in Online Editor. On the My Templates and Recommendation Requests tabs, the online editor will automatically display the merge codes for the address block and salutation line in text box (as compared to in past years when the user had to copy those merge codes from a separate box on the right and paste them into the text box). The user will be able to delete these merge codes if desired. Once the recommendation letters are generated into a .pdf format, a small footer will be displayed at the bottom of the letter listing the name of the recommender, email address, and phone number, as drawn from the recommender’s account information.

Law School Administrators’ Interface – Major Changes

• More Flexible Email Options. OSCAR will display a field titled “send copy to” that allows the law school administrator to retain one copy of an email sent to a large group of people as opposed to the “cc:” option which provides a copy of each email sent to each individual in the group. Law school administrators will be able to enter their email address in the From field, instead of their emails displaying “from OSCAR.” Law school administrators also will be able to send batch emails to recommenders only or assistants only.
• View of Clerkship Information. Under the Judges Tab, OSCAR will provide the law school administrators with the same clerkship information on the judges that the applicants see.
• Search Positions by Date Modified. Law school administrators will be able to perform searches for clerkship positions modified in the last 7 days, last 30 days, or since a specific date.
• Finalized Applications Cannot be Changed. Applicants and law school administrators will have the ability to edit, add, or remove documents or recommenders until the applicant finalizes the application. Thereafter, all application materials are LOCKED and cannot be changed by the applicant, the law school administrator, or even the OSCAR Help Desk unless the judge submits a document update request via email through the OSCAR system. Judges will have the ability to select an application and request an updated version of any or all application documents. The update request will unlock the application and allow the applicant or law school administrator to upload a new version of the requested document.
• Datafile of Judges’ Contact Information. Law school administrators will be able to download contact information of all Article III and Article I judges for importing into their own internal databases. This is to replace the same feature from a secure part of the Federal Law Clerk Information System.
• Unavailable Applicants List. Again to replace an existing feature from the FLCIS, law school administrators will be able in OSCAR to add applicants from their law school to an Unavailable Applicants List viewable to judges. As part of OSCAR however, this action will have the effect of withdrawing any active, electronic applications of the unavailable applicant.

Who Do I Contact if I Have Any Questions?

Email: oscar-support@ao.uscourts.gov
Phone: 202-354-3005
Website: http://oscar.uscourts.gov