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Is getting a Circuit Court clerkship a necessary step if you want to go into appellate litigation? Is it sufficient? What's the path to this? How helpful is it for elite academia? For either career path, how much does the prestige of your judge matter?

I'm a HYS 2L on law review and in the top 10% of my class. I'm going to be applying to exclusively federal appellate judges and my recommenders seem to think I have an excellent shot of getting a clerkship, and have some shot at the feeders (but probably no shot at the Supreme Court down the road). If I want to go into appellate litigation or academia, how much should I be focusing on the prestige of judges in applying? Some of my favorite judges are off plan, but all of my top "prestigious" choices are on plan, and I'm trying to figure out how much weight I should be putting on the prestige of the judges I'm applying to in ranking my choices. Is it worth taking a risk that I'll end up with an on-plan non-feeder judge who I'm lukewarm about in order to gun for my favorite feeders, or will any Circuit Court clerkship get me where I'd like to be career-wise (in which case I might take the safer route and go off-plan)?

Thanks!

As a law student at HYS, your best resources are your current professors.

I'm getting conflicting advice from professors and I was hoping that some of the current clerks who post on this board, and people closer to the process could weigh in.