2L SA wanting to clerk question Forum

[Texas2017]

The question is based on the assumption I get a permanent offer to join the firm where I am an SA this summer. I’m doing litigation and I keep feeling the urge to do a clerkship—preferably a federal one—after graduating. I posed this question to an associate who told me that they may not have a spot for me when I want to come back. I love the firm and would be devastated if this was the case. This is holding me back. I thought big firms usually give bonuses to people who come back—is this not the case with every firm? If not, do you know where I can find info on this policy or who I should talk to about it? It’s really stressing me out.

Also—I know I’m late to the fed judicial clerkship application game. You don’t have to tell me that lol!

[LikelyThrowaway]

Talk to the recruiting coordinator or someone in that department. If it's a decent firm they should be pretty transparent about how this process works.

[Anon-non-anon]

The question is based on the assumption I get a permanent offer to join the firm where I am an SA this summer. I’m doing litigation and I keep feeling the urge to do a clerkship—preferably a federal one—after graduating. I posed this question to an associate who told me that they may not have a spot for me when I want to come back. I love the firm and would be devastated if this was the case. This is holding me back. I thought big firms usually give bonuses to people who come back—is this not the case with every firm? If not, do you know where I can find info on this policy or who I should talk to about it? It’s really stressing me out.

Also—I know I’m late to the fed judicial clerkship application game. You don’t have to tell me that lol!

Ask others who have clerked and/or partner you trust and/or HR. Most big firms seem happy enough to have you clerk and come back. They would prefer people to do it straight out as it's less disruptive but seem to have accepted that later clerkships are more and more common. That said, yours could be different (especially if smaller).

Without more details it's hard to say, but I suspect that associate did not know what they were talking about.

[JHP]

Agreed with the above posters--definitely talk to your recruiting manager/HR, and if you have a partner that you definitely trust, you should ask them about what the process is for folks who'd like to clerk before starting. It seems a little outrageous to me that an associate at a big firm would say that there wouldn't be a spot for you if you went and clerked--this is not an unusual path at all and I would venture to say that most if not almost all the v50 biglaw firms have at least a couple people who clerk before they come in to the firm. Of course, as the above poster has said, hard to say without more info and depends on your firm specifically, but I would say don't panic yet--just talk to the right folks and figure out what firm procedure is on this.