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Or my life in general, really...

I have great public interest experience (legal and nonlegal), and that is what I really want to do. It's why I came to law school, etc. I spent my 1L summer at an organization known to be at the top of its particular field doing very substantive environmental work, and I have also done internships during the semesters.

Here's the kicker: I did OCI and got a job out of it (SA). It's a firm that I like okay, but I very much doubt (though I cannot be positive) that I will want to be employed there—or any firm—after graduation. (Assume that I do get an offer; this firm generally 100% offers.)

More stuff: I plan to pursue a clerkship right after graduation. I don't want to be unemployed and in debt. I do want to pursue the reason I started on this path in the first place. With that, my questions:

Will I know about clerkships by the time I need to respond to the firm?
What happens if I take the clerkship and then legitimately have a change of plans? (For a number of reasons, I'm looking to clerk about 2500 miles away from where the firm is.)
What happens if I have a "change of plans" that is not so legitimate (e.g., a fellowship that I will be applying for in the fall but won't know the results of until spring)?
Do firms really respect the "April 1 if applying to public interest" NALP guideline, or will I look like a fool for asking?

Basically, I want to know what my options are before August rolls around. Who knows? I might really like the firm, but I don't think that I will and I don't want to wait until the last moment to think about what happens if I love it or hate it. Winter break seems like a good time to work through this stuff.

Thanks. Sorry so long. And if it matters, T14, LR, not much debt (but enough to think about), enjoy prestige.

Anonymous User wrote:Or my life in general, really...

I have great public interest experience (legal and nonlegal), and that is what I really want to do. It's why I came to law school, etc. I spent my 1L summer at an organization known to be at the top of its particular field doing very substantive environmental work, and I have also done internships during the semesters.

Here's the kicker: I did OCI and got a job out of it (SA). It's a firm that I like okay, but I very much doubt (though I cannot be positive) that I will want to be employed there—or any firm—after graduation. (Assume that I do get an offer; this firm generally 100% offers.)

More stuff: I plan to pursue a clerkship right after graduation. I don't want to be unemployed and in debt. I do want to pursue the reason I started on this path in the first place. With that, my questions:

Will I know about clerkships by the time I need to respond to the firm?
What happens if I take the clerkship and then legitimately have a change of plans? (For a number of reasons, I'm looking to clerk about 2500 miles away from where the firm is.)
What happens if I have a "change of plans" that is not so legitimate (e.g., a fellowship that I will be applying for in the fall but won't know the results of until spring)?
Do firms really respect the "April 1 if applying to public interest" NALP guideline, or will I look like a fool for asking?

Basically, I want to know what my options are before August rolls around. Who knows? I might really like the firm, but I don't think that I will and I don't want to wait until the last moment to think about what happens if I love it or hate it. Winter break seems like a good time to work through this stuff.

Thanks. Sorry so long. And if it matters, T14, LR, not much debt (but enough to think about), enjoy prestige.

Not sure the answers to your questions, but I do know that a lot of judges want you to keep your offer(s) open (i.e., delaying accepting) while you are clerking. I might just tell the firm that since you want to clerk you don't want to accept right away, and then see how things play out.