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I'm posting here because my CS office has been unhelpful. Every time I ask them for help, I feel as if I'm given general vanilla answers that come from a public relations manual. I wanted to know what types of clerkships should I be targeting? And what do you think my chances are? Do you think it's worth it to also consider state clerkships and do them?

I really want to do Art III clerkship, but I may be open to doing Magistrate or state ct. appeals, too. I'm afraid that if I do a state coa clerkship though, I'll limit myself to just that state for future employment. One of my recommenders knows a state coa judge that he says I could probably get if I asked him to put in a word, but do you think that's worth it? I obviously don't want to use that connection only to turn down an interview or offer. And I don't want to work in a state coa if it's going to limit me. Or should I just be happy that I have that type of connection to a clerkship and take it because my stats suck that much?

Here are my general stats:
Top 15-20 school
~3.5
Secondary LJ
Prior intern work for dist. judge.

Feel free to ask for more details if you think they're necessary.

You're probably competitive for state court of appeals. I'm 3.6/ Law Review same range of school and have been told that I'm competitive for those courts.

Don't worry about them limiting you to that state. Yes they will not get you recruited by biglaw. However, if you're worried about it not opening enough doors, then you don't have a job yet, which means you're pretty much limited to that state anyway. In other words, it won't limit you any more than being unemployed will.

Don't worry about using a connection only to turn down an offer. Why? Because you don't turn down clerkship offers. You take the first offer you get. Its fucking ridiculous, buts it the way it works.