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I thought I had seen something on this before but I may be imagining things. I have a post graduate clerkship with a bankruptcy judge lined up (any questions about the bankruptcy clerkship application process feel free to ask) and I am wondering if there is any such thing as bgger firms hiring recent graduates going into one-year term clerkships as "summer associates"? Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? It may not even exist...

Yes. It does but it's rare, you probably just have to ask. I think it may have been more common back in the day.

I'm doing a pre-clerk SA, but with the same firm that I worked for during my 2L summer. If your bankruptcy clerkship is in SDNY/DE, I would apply to the firms with big BR/restructuring departments after the holidays. Can't hurt to ask.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm doing a pre-clerk SA, but with the same firm that I worked for during my 2L summer. If your bankruptcy clerkship is in SDNY/DE, I would apply to the firms with big BR/restructuring departments after the holidays. Can't hurt to ask.

Not OP. Why are you doing this? When are you taking the bar? It seems worth the money if you have a lot of debt, but I can't imagine firms would be very receptive to that reason.

My clerkship is in the first circuit but I did get some SDNY/DE bankruptcy interviews - I am thinking reapplying to the SDNY/DE judges in the spring/early summer. Anyway my grades got quite a bit better over my 2L year (T20 school). I would be close to or in the biglaw grade range for my school now but I wasn't after my first year. So, I am really just thinking about this as a way to form a relationship with a bigger firm for down the line... Good to know it exists at some level, I will do some asking around after the holidays and let you all know how it goes.

Any other insights would be much appreciated!

OP I am at one of the usual suspects for restructuring (Weil, K&E). I have absolutely nothing to do with any hiring that goes on, but from who I've seen come through here, the only people that have been hired from pre-clerkship SAs are those who are going to a federal COA.

We have hired quite a few people who have come off of SDNY/DE BK clerkships though. If you end up doing a second clerkship in one of those districts, you have a very good shot at getting hired into a top restructuring practice.

Anonymous User wrote: Not OP. Why are you doing this? When are you taking the bar? It seems worth the money if you have a lot of debt, but I can't imagine firms would be very receptive to that reason.

As for this - you don't tell them you want the money, you tell them whatever reason they want to hear. ("I'd love to see if I fit with X firm/city/etc.")

Anonymous User wrote:OP I am at one of the usual suspects for restructuring (Weil, K&E). I have absolutely nothing to do with any hiring that goes on, but from who I've seen come through here, the only people that have been hired from pre-clerkship SAs are those who are going to a federal COA.

We have hired quite a few people who have come off of SDNY/DE BK clerkships though. If you end up doing a second clerkship in one of those districts, you have a very good shot at getting hired into a top restructuring practice.

Anonymous User wrote: Not OP. Why are you doing this? When are you taking the bar? It seems worth the money if you have a lot of debt, but I can't imagine firms would be very receptive to that reason.

As for this - you don't tell them you want the money, you tell them whatever reason they want to hear. ("I'd love to see if I fit with X firm/city/etc.")

Thanks for your thoughts. Yeah my thought was that the chances chances of landing at one of the big time restructuring firms may hinge of whether I can get in with one of the DE/SDNY judges. But, it probably won't hurt to send out some feelers and maybe I will get lucky.

Dude, just get in the judges game with an SDNY/D. Del. BK judge, call his hand blind, and enjoy your clerkship.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I'm doing a pre-clerk SA, but with the same firm that I worked for during my 2L summer. If your bankruptcy clerkship is in SDNY/DE, I would apply to the firms with big BR/restructuring departments after the holidays. Can't hurt to ask.

Not OP. Why are you doing this? When are you taking the bar? It seems worth the money if you have a lot of debt, but I can't imagine firms would be very receptive to that reason.

I'm the person with the pre-clerk SA. I'm taking the bar the same summer. I'm doing a 6 week SA while taking bar prep, and then 4 weeks off before the bar. I do have a lot of debt, and that is a big part of the reason. I did articulate other reasons to the firm, and I'm not the first person at the same firm to do a pre-clerk.

I did this, albeit with my 2L summer firm. It was an *extremely* intense summer due to the full-time work + bar prep. However, it definitely worked out from a student loan perspective and increased my QOL during my clerkship.

I'd intended to look into a pre-clerkship SA with firms other than my 2L summer firm, but found this impossible during on-campus interviewing because the firms were interviewing 3Ls simultaneously with judges who were interviewing clerks, and I kept having to cancel on the firms to fly out for clerkship interviews. I honestly did not consider reaching out to the firms after securing a clerkship, as it sounds like you are doing. But FWIW, what you're considering doing definitely existed when I was a 3L, which was a few years ago and in a better economy. From other commenters in this thread, sounds like it still does. Good luck.