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(Anonymous for hopefully obvious reasons)

I am a law clerk who is hoping to switch markets (from a secondary market to DC/NYC). However, I have accepted an offer at my firm following graduation.

How to I begin applying to firms/doing callbacks without angering either my judge or my firm? My worst case scenario is that I apply, I don't get anything, and my original firm finds out I was job hunting and is mad.

Is your clerkship for a set amount of time? Can you wait it out?

Anonymous User wrote:(Anonymous for hopefully obvious reasons)

I am a law clerk who is hoping to switch markets (from a secondary market to DC/NYC). However, I have accepted an offer at my firm following graduation.

How to I begin applying to firms/doing callbacks without angering either my judge or my firm? My worst case scenario is that I apply, I don't get anything, and my original firm finds out I was job hunting and is mad.

This isn't too hard. For one thing, you should ask your judge whether it's okay to start applying to jobs before you actually start applying. Your judge will want her clerks to wind up with jobs post-clerkship, so I'm sure she (or he) has a set policy in place.

If and when it's time to start applying (if you're in the DC/NY area, you'll know when it's time because the law firms will start inviting you to their clerk receptions; if you're outside the DC/NY area, then you should plan to start submitting applications after Thanksgiving...December through April-ish is typically the time to apply, and it's not uncommon to not hear anything back until February or March), your judge will likely want you to cease working on any matters involving the law firms you've applied to. Because you'll be clerking in a market outside of your desired location, this shouldn't be an issue.

Finally, you having already accepted an offer at another firm shouldn't be an issue. You should expect to pay back any bar fees/expenses the firm has spent on you (and budget accordingly). The firm won't know until you start receiving offers and the firms who you've received offers from start to run background checks (and eventually contact your firm). Your old firm may even contact you beforehand just to make sure you're still on board. It shouldn't be difficult to explain that "life happens" and to explain that but for life happening and the fact that you "have to" switch markets, you'd be returning to the firm.

Good luck.
Anon for obvious reasons.