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I’m a 2016 UVA grad. Worked for two years at major market v15 and am currently clerking for a district court in a midwestern district (not NDIL).

I took a National approach to clerking and it planned out.

I am AUSA or bust and intend to do same.

What are odds of getting some nibbles in smaller markets?

Anonymous User wrote:I’m a 2016 UVA grad. Worked for two years at major market v15 and am currently clerking for a district court in a midwestern district (not NDIL).

I took a National approach to clerking and it planned out.

I am AUSA or bust and intend to do same.

What are odds of getting some nibbles in smaller markets?

Do you have trial experience? If you do, probably pretty good. If not, it may be harder than your clerkship search. Full disclosure, I only interviewed at one office and the office subsequently did not hire for that position. At the interview, I got the feeling that they liked that I was in biglaw, but loved that I had trial experience. Interviewed in a secondary non-border district market.

Super hard if you have zero trial experience. Super hard. Apply broadly is the right mindset but be prepared to go somewhere to get trial exp first. You'll be a muchhhh better candidate. I'll add that if oyu've taken depositions before maybe you can move the needle a little but that's still sort of meh.

I agree that trial experience is highly valued. The border districts tend to have a lot of volume and a lot of turnover, so if you can come up with a compelling application/narrative, you might have a shot at one of them.