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How does one go from a clerkship to a biglaw position? I understand that a lot of biglaw firms will start new employees off as second year associates if they do a clerkship instead of working at the firm their first year. To do this, does one do a 2L SA position at the firm, receive the job offer, apply for the clerkship position, work as a clerk for a year, then go into the firm? Or does one do the clerkship then apply to biglaw firms?

the typical process is to do regular 2L OCI and secure a SA, secure the offer, then apply to clerkships in the early fall of 3L. the firm will be more than happy to defer you for a year for the clerkship, and will probably pay 60-70K of a bonus when you join after 1 year, as well as grant you standing as a second year associate.

The other method is to do the above, but re-apply to better firms (via mass mailing i assume) than the one that gave you an offer. You might be able to trade up. Or, in rare cases, it might be possible for someone who struck out during OCI to get a clerkship during 3L and then land a biglaw position on the strength of the clerkship.

Thanks for the replies guys, very helpful.

Don't know where the $60-70K clerkship bonus figure is coming from. Even the top firms typically only pay $50K for a single year of clerking and at most $70K for two years (SCOTUS being the exception to the rule).

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G. T. L. Rev. wrote:

Pricer wrote:How does one go from a clerkship to a biglaw position? I understand that a lot of biglaw firms will start new employees off as second year associates if they do a clerkship instead of working at the firm their first year. To do this, does one do a 2L SA position at the firm, receive the job offer, apply for the clerkship position, work as a clerk for a year, then go into the firm? Or does one do the clerkship then apply to biglaw firms?

Both. As in, you can SA --> get offer --> accept offer* --> get clerkship --> graduate --> clerk --> return to firm, or you can do all of those steps up through clerking and apply to new firms while you do so. At least on my circuit, lots of clerks had interview offers from firms they probably could not have gotten as 2Ls.

* This is firm/judge specific. Some judges ask that you not accept an offer before clerking. In those cases, firms tend to hold the offer open for you, such that you can accept if after your clerkship. Other judges just screen you off of cases in which your firm is involved.

Asking out of curiosity: Are there any firms you know of that do not support clerkships? That is are there firms that will not allow you to clerk if you accept their job offer?

G. T. L. Rev. wrote:

Rock-N-Roll wrote: Asking out of curiosity: Are there any firms you know of that do not support clerkships? That is are there firms that will not allow you to clerk if you accept their job offer?

None that I am aware of, although I have heard that some transactional attorneys encourage SAs intent on doing transactional work not to clerk.

My ~V5ish firm encourages transactional attorneys to clerk, but discourages working at the firm, clerking, and then returning for corporate attorneys. They accept it as a necessary evil for litigators.