Should I be gunning for a clerkship? Forum

[lavarman84]

Re: financial concerns, you don't have to do the two clerkships consecutively right out of law school. Indeed, it's increasingly less common to do so. If you hold off, you can pay down some debt in the interim and come into your clerkship making more money because higher up the JS scale. Also, if you can land the D.Ct. clerkship for after graduation, you'll be a stronger candidate for COA clerkships, particularly since you'll be anticipated to have a year or two of practice experience .

This is great advice. I would have been a long shot for a COA clerkship out of LS. I was on the outer most bounds of competitiveness. However, that changed with my D. Ct. clerkship, and I'd say the biggest factor in that was getting a very strong LOR from my D. Ct. judge (after about 5 to 6 months of clerking). After I had that LOR, I was able to garner a number of interviews and get my offer. You have stronger credentials than I did, so you'd likely be competitive now, but you'll be that much more competitive with a D. Ct. clerkship if you decide to do both.

That all said, it's not necessary to do both, and as I said, you can apply to both now (broadly for COAs and narrowly for D. Cts.) and see where it takes you.

[lavarman84]

OP again. Great post. Points all taken.

To the other two posters:
(1) I definitely don't view DNJ or D Conn as "backups" like one would view a safety school when picking colleges. I think it's pretty settled that EDNY/SDNY are more preftigious, and I'd rather be living in the city than commuting to/living in the suburbs, so I imagine when applying I would stagger my applications such that my EDNY/SDNY apps go out earlier so I can maximize my chances of landing one of those courts and not end up taking a DNJ/D Conn clerkship before all my EDNY/SDNY apps are looked at. Nevertheless, I would of course be thrilled to land a clerkship in either of DNJ or D Conn.
(2) I would consider doing both district court and COA if I was lucky enough to land both, but you hit the nail on the head with both family concerns and debt. Since my plan is to stay in private practice (and hopefully make good money) for my whole career maybe the debt shouldn't be the biggest concern, but I'll leave law school pushing close to the 200k mark. It would probably come down to the personal decision of whether I'd want to be away from my SO for a year if I left to do random COA.

Yeah, I would hammer the EDNY and SDNY hard because your firm is more likely to practice there. It definitely makes you look good if senior associates and partners are coming to you for advice because they're before your judge (after your clerkship). Work any connections you have or can find. The key is getting your application into the small pile.

[BlackAndOrange84]

Re: financial concerns, you don't have to do the two clerkships consecutively right out of law school. Indeed, it's increasingly less common to do so. If you hold off, you can pay down some debt in the interim and come into your clerkship making more money because higher up the JS scale. Also, if you can land the D.Ct. clerkship for after graduation, you'll be a stronger candidate for COA clerkships, particularly since you'll be anticipated to have a year or two of practice experience .

This is great advice. I would have been a long shot for a COA clerkship out of LS. I was on the outer most bounds of competitiveness. However, that changed with my D. Ct. clerkship, and I'd say the biggest factor in that was getting a very strong LOR from my D. Ct. judge (after about 5 to 6 months of clerking). After I had that LOR, I was able to garner a number of interviews and get my offer. You have stronger credentials than I did, so you'd likely be competitive now, but you'll be that much more competitive with a D. Ct. clerkship if you decide to do both.

That all said, it's not necessary to do both, and as I said, you can apply to both now (broadly for COAs and narrowly for D. Cts.) and see where it takes you.

Just to follow-up on this, I think folks really underestimate how big a boost both a D.Ct. clerkship and a year or two of work experience can be. Except for some really high-end COA judges who still hire almost entirely right out of school, there's a strong trend towards hiring alums w/ D.Ct. or biglaw work experience. In my COA chambers, a year or two of WE was a serious boost and D.Ct. even more important. Also, anecdotally, had a friend who had gotten zero traction for COAs, then landed a district and sent out a second round of apps for a couple years out from graduation. This person quickly landed a desirable COA clerkship.