V20 Offer or district court clerkship? Forum

[Anonymous User]

T14 student, above median. I received an offer from my V20 summer firm - I will be doing corporate work. I started applying to clerkships before I got the offer and have a few interviews with district judges in rural districts where I will not be practicing. (i.e., my V20 is in LA and the district court clerkship interviews are in Iowa/Indiana). Assuming my firm does not keep the offer open, is it worth doing a clerkship? Assuming it does keep the offer open, is it worth taking the year and doing the clerkship if I'll be doing corporate work? Long term goals are maybe making partner or possibly teaching.

[Anonymous User]

T14 student, above median. I received an offer from my V20 summer firm - I will be doing corporate work. I started applying to clerkships before I got the offer and have a few interviews with district judges in rural districts where I will not be practicing. (i.e., my V20 is in LA and the district court clerkship interviews are in Iowa/Indiana). Assuming my firm does not keep the offer open, is it worth doing a clerkship? Assuming it does keep the offer open, is it worth taking the year and doing the clerkship if I'll be doing corporate work? Long term goals are maybe making partner or possibly teaching.

Take the V20 summer offer then apply for a clerkship in your area or nearby after a year if you really want to clerk (why are you clerking anywhere but Delware Chancery if you are doing corporate work?). In this economy, a firm job is hard to come by and clerks coming from flyover clerkships with no work experience have had trouble landing jobs. Even if the firm says it will keep your offer open, that doesn't mean it will. If the economy changes, the firm will yank your offer and there will be nothing you can do about it. Especially if you have debt, work first then clerk.

[anon168]

T14 student, above median. I received an offer from my V20 summer firm - I will be doing corporate work. I started applying to clerkships before I got the offer and have a few interviews with district judges in rural districts where I will not be practicing. (i.e., my V20 is in LA and the district court clerkship interviews are in Iowa/Indiana). Assuming my firm does not keep the offer open, is it worth doing a clerkship? Assuming it does keep the offer open, is it worth taking the year and doing the clerkship if I'll be doing corporate work? Long term goals are maybe making partner or possibly teaching.

While I typically always tell everyone to clerk if they have the opportunity, in your situation (OOM clerkship, desire to do corporate work) if your firm does not keep the offer open (which is odd IMO), then don't clerk.

But if they will hold the offer open, then I would still encourage you to clerk, esp. if you want to enter academia later on (and even if you want to do corp. work at the firm).

[monkey85]

Take the offer. Nothing compares to corporate work. A D. Ct. clerkship is a great experience, but will not place you in a a better position relative to your peers once you return to the firm (if you return to the firm). One of the few clerkships beneficial to corporate work is Del. Ch. Ct, and that is not what you have, so I would just go firm.