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I have a clerkship next year and wanted to update my resume for applying to firms...anyone know the standard way of doing that? Can it be the first thing under experience but you just put "upcoming" or do you do it under a new section called "future experience" or can you just put the dates and leave it at that?

also, (its with a magistrate judge) but would rather it look "nicer", is it being evasive to put something like:

US District Court, X District of _______
Law Clerk to The Honorable JUDGE NAME

instead of

US District Court, X District of _______
Law Clerk to Magistrate Judge JUDGE NAME

I don't know the form you should use to describe him, but I do have two thoughts.

1. You should make sure your judge lets you apply to jobs before and early in the clerkship. Some judges, for conflict of interest reasons and personal preference, will only let clerks apply near the end of the clerkship.

2. I've listed a job before on my resume that is upcoming and then just do not include the standard one or two lines of description below it. While you do know what you will be doing, it seems a bit odd to be claiming specific accomplishments like "writing and researching orders relating to e-discovery disputes" until you've actually done the work. You know you will be a clerk to a judge, you can't know exactly what you will learn doing it.

Also, expect firms to confuse any prospective job with one you have already done. Half the firms I interviewed with were like "so tell me about your time at X" and I had to respond "well, actually, that's what I'm doing next term. I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet, but they told me it will involve Y." I still got an offer, but it's something you want to make sure they understand.

I had a similar issue when I was applying to jobs last summer. I had gotten into a fall externship that was incredibly relevant to prospective employers so I just put my starting date on there and put "will be responsible for" etc etc underneath. Because it was a pretty regimented externship, I knew what responsibilities I would have.