The Honorable Vijay Shanker
Bio
The Honorable Vijay Shanker was appointed to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in December 2022 by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. From 2005 to 2022, Judge Shanker served in various capacities in the United States Department of Justice. From 2005 to 2012 he was an attorney in the Appellate Section of the Criminal Division. From 2012 to 2014 he served in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, including as Counselor and Acting Deputy Chief of Staff to the Assistant Attorney General. Judge Shanker returned to the Appellate Section as Deputy Chief in 2014, serving in that role until 2019, when he began a detail as Senior Litigation Counsel in the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. He then returned to the Criminal Division’s Appellate Section as Deputy Chief until he joined the court.
Earlier in his career, Judge Shanker was an associate at Mayer Brown from 2004 to 2005 and at Covington & Burling from 1999 to 2000 and 2001 to 2004. He served as a law clerk for Judge Chester J. Straub on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 2000 to 2001. Judge Shanker received his J.D., Order of the Coif, from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1999 and his B.A., cum laude, from Duke University in 1994. At Virginia, he won the Roger & Madeleine Traynor Prize and the Law School Alumni Association Best Note Award.
Judge Shanker has been awarded the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement for the Handling of Appeals, the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, and the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, as well as the South Asian Bar Association of DC Public Sector Trailblazer Award and the University of Virginia School of Law Shaping Justice Award for Prosecution. He previously served as Vice President of the Board of Directors of Calvary Women’s Services.
Judge Shanker is also a musician and was the drummer in a nationally touring indie rock band in the early 2000s.
Details
Phone number
Clerkships & Internships
Judge Shanker employs three law clerks to assist him in chambers. Clerkship terms
are for one year and typically begin in late August or early September. The judge
welcomes applicants with diverse backgrounds, employment experience before or after
law school, and an interest in government service or public interest work.
Judge Shanker has completed hiring through the 2027-2028 term and will begin
accepting applications for the 2028-2029 term and thereafter in the fall of 2026.
Judge Shanker accepts applications from law school graduates and third-year law
students on a rolling basis. Consistent with the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan, he will
not review applications from second-year students/rising third-year students before
the date specified in the Hiring Plan. Second-year students may submit applications
before spring grades are released, but should supplement their application packets once
updated transcripts become available.
Clerkship applicants should submit a cover letter; a resume; a law school transcript; a
list of three references; and a writing sample, not to exceed 15 pages, representing the
applicant’s own work unedited by others. These materials should be sent as a single
PDF file to ShankerClerkship [at] dcappeals.gov. Applicants should also arrange for
three letters of recommendation to be sent to the same email address.
Please note: Judicial law clerks are eligible to begin at Grade 11 of the Judiciary Salary
Plan Pay Rates. Clerks with 0–365 days of post-J.D. legal experience are eligible to be
hired at Grade 11, Step 1. Additional post-J.D. legal experience may qualify clerks to
start at a higher step within Grade 11; law clerks who start at the court with less than
12 months of post-J.D. experience will be eligible to receive a step increase once their
combined post-J.D. experience reaches 12 months. Please note that DC Courts law
clerks currently do not advance grades based on post-J.D. legal experience.
If you have any questions or need any additional information, please email
ShankerClerkship [at] dcappeals.gov.