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Rising 3L, with parents in NJ, who have agreed to let me stay in their basement for 1 year after law school (2L SA w/ perm job offer @ NYC V50), so that I can live basically cost-free and pay off 100% of my student loans (approx 100k).

My plan is to shoot for clerkship after accomplishing this, so I can be a debt-free clerk, and try to get by on the clerk pay for a year or two.

Do I go through OSCAR, and the routine process, THIS YEAR, and apply with the intent to start two years from now, or do I apply via an independent mail-bombing route immediately AFTER graduating law school, with the intent to start one year after that? Do I have to tell my firm about my plan here NOW, before I'm formally extended an offer - which I will?

What's the system in place for applying for clerkship after working in big law for a year?

Anonymous User wrote:Do I go through OSCAR, and the routine process, THIS YEAR, and apply with the intent to start two years from now, or do I apply via an independent mail-bombing route immediately AFTER graduating law school, with the intent to start one year after that? Do I have to tell my firm about my plan here NOW, before I'm formally extended an offer - which I will?

What's the system in place for applying for clerkship after working in big law for a year?

On OSCAR, judges specify the start dates for each clerkship they post to the site. You should begin applying for 2012-13 clerkships as they start to appear on OSCAR -- probably beginning sometime in the spring of 2011. So you'll likely start sending out applications in the middle or toward the end of your 3L year.

As for telling your firm your plans, I wouldn't advise volunteering this info right now. You don't have an offer from the firm, nor do you have a clerkship offer. If someone at the firm asks you whether you plan to apply for clerkships, you should of course be honest. But otherwise I'd keep it to yourself until you have a clerkship offer in hand.

Since you're not planning on clerking right away, I would not tell your firm about your intentions to clerk unless they ask or you have to skip work to fly out for an interview.

You should only apply to the 2012 clerkships on OSCAR. There are already a few up, and more openings will be listed over the coming months. (I've been trolling OSCAR since I'm thinking about doing district after my appellate clerkship.) Don't try the "mail-bomb" approach.