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Anonymous for obvious reasons. I'm wondering if any current associates who are clerking a year or two into their V20 jobs can tell me when is the best time to inform your firm of your clerkship. I just got a clerkship for a couple of years from now and am waiting to tell my firm until I have more info.

There are a couple of distinctions between clerking right after law school before starting at your firm and clerking after working for a couple of years.

(1) Your firm is investing time and money into training you before you leave and potentially won't come back.
(2) Your firm could be hesitant to staff you on long-term projects or substantive work as your clerkship start date approaches.

My worst fear is to be let go and my second to worst fear is to be given shit work. On the other hand, not telling the firm until close to my start date is douchey and could make them not want to take me back. Moreover, if they don't mind and/or approve, it could be a good thing to let them know I will soon acquire badass credentials. Current plan is to try to stealthily get a lay of the land by casually asking around about clerkships without mentioning that I already have one lined up until it becomes clear that they don't mind. Good plan or any other thoughts or advice?

Thanks.

V20s are generally pretty happy when their attorneys get clerkships, as it reflects well on them. I'd say just tell them now. Since you're not leaving in 6 months but in a few years I doubt it'll affect your staffing for now. Obviously if a big case comes in the door 6 months before you leave, you're probably not going to get on it.

At my firm it's fairly standard for associates to bring it up two or three months in advance. I'm not sure what (if anything) would happen if they brought it up earlier, however.

If you have a clerkship now, there's no harm in telling them now (and it might hurt you in coming back to the firm if they find out you kept the clerkship a secret for a long time). If you try to keep it a secret for too long to avoid "shit work", you'll only hurt yourself and your reputation at the firm. Imagine if you gave someone important long-term projects where you were relying on them, and they bailed to go clerk on short notice when they knew about the clerkship for a year or more. You'd be pissed.