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For personal reasons, I chose to work at a firm in Market A but I really want to be in Market B. Those reasons have since ceased to exist.

How soon is too soon to lateral to Market B? I was thinking a minimum of 2 years, anyone have experience with this?

2 years is fine if you bust your butt and get a lot of really good substantive experience. If you do 2 years of doc review, I wouldn't expect anyone to want to hire you.

How would a two-year clerkship impact lateral hiring? If you get class credit and work 2.5 years somewhere, you're a fifth year. Would firms in a different market view you as a fifth year or just another dude with 2 years of firm experience?

If your current firm has an office in the other market, you might consider broaching the subject now. I know lots of associates that did this for personal reasons pretty early on (some around a year). Some were able to do it right away, others were shot down initially but we're eventually allowed to switch offices. Depends on the personal reason, whether the other office had a need, etc.

If you need to lateral to another firm, start looking now. It can take a while and some firms are hiring associates with 1-2 years of experience right now in hot practice groups. It never hurts to start looking.

My firm just hired a lateral (from another market/region) who was an associate for less than a year. The associate is a Yale grad, so that could have made a difference.

How does this work with the bar? That is, are firms reluctant to take on a lateral that has to take the full bar, as opposed to the attorney exam, in the new market?

I know of several people who switched firms as second-years. Of those, a couple switched markets as well. Their new firms were OK with giving them a month off to study for the bar. From what I can tell, being in a hot practice area seems to be key. I doubt most firms are looking to hire gen lit/corp people this early on, since the junior associates they hired out of law school haven't begun the mass 3rd/4th year exodus that would cause them to want to hire new people.

I was able to get a lateral offer to a new market with just under a year of experience. I was working in a mid size firm in small city where the market salary was under 100k and the offer was for an NLJ 200 firm in a large city. I ended up opting to not work at a law firm but the key was definitely the hot practice group.