Top Law Schools

Are there are any career moves to be made after biglaw lit where one spends most or all of their time doing legal research? Specifically ones that do not require getting a master's in library science (or any other additional degree)? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Maybe working for Westlaw or Lexis?

Anonymous User wrote:Are there are any career moves to be made after biglaw lit where one spends most or all of their time doing legal research? Specifically ones that do not require getting a master's in library science (or any other additional degree)? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Career Clerk to an Art. III Judge? You also have to draft opinions, but this can be a DOPE gig if you find the right judge. There are downsides (better hope your judge doesn't retire) but this is probably the best legal research-focused job that will still pay six figures and give great QoL.

Fireworks2016 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Are there are any career moves to be made after biglaw lit where one spends most or all of their time doing legal research? Specifically ones that do not require getting a master's in library science (or any other additional degree)? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Career Clerk to an Art. III Judge? You also have to draft opinions, but this can be a DOPE gig if you find the right judge. There are downsides (better hope your judge doesn't retire) but this is probably the best legal research-focused job that will still pay six figures and give great QoL.

i thought hte only career clerks for AIII judges were those who were grandfathered in. Can they still hire career clerks?

Anonymous User wrote:Are there are any career moves to be made after biglaw lit where one spends most or all of their time doing legal research? Specifically ones that do not require getting a master's in library science (or any other additional degree)? Thanks in advance for any insight.

There are lots of "law and motion attorney" jobs out there where basically all you do is write motions, memos, research, etc. Appellate work is like this as well, but much harder to get, and even harder to do it exclusively.

Certain circuit courts and state appeals courts have clerks who work for the court, as opposed to individual judges, which are career-clerk type roles. For example, specialty immigration/pro se clerks in the federal courts.

I've also encountered counsel-type lawyers at mid-size firms who effectively work on a per diem basis on brief writing and research tasks, basically as a PT job, but those are late-career lawyers.

Any appellate practice in state gov or at the appellate public defender's office. You're not going to make a lot starting out though.

whats an updog wrote:

Fireworks2016 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Are there are any career moves to be made after biglaw lit where one spends most or all of their time doing legal research? Specifically ones that do not require getting a master's in library science (or any other additional degree)? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Career Clerk to an Art. III Judge? You also have to draft opinions, but this can be a DOPE gig if you find the right judge. There are downsides (better hope your judge doesn't retire) but this is probably the best legal research-focused job that will still pay six figures and give great QoL.

i thought hte only career clerks for AIII judges were those who were grandfathered in. Can they still hire career clerks?

I thought they were limited to one per chambers, but could still have them. But I could be wrong.

nixy wrote:

whats an updog wrote:

Fireworks2016 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Are there are any career moves to be made after biglaw lit where one spends most or all of their time doing legal research? Specifically ones that do not require getting a master's in library science (or any other additional degree)? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Career Clerk to an Art. III Judge? You also have to draft opinions, but this can be a DOPE gig if you find the right judge. There are downsides (better hope your judge doesn't retire) but this is probably the best legal research-focused job that will still pay six figures and give great QoL.

i thought hte only career clerks for AIII judges were those who were grandfathered in. Can they still hire career clerks?

I thought they were limited to one per chambers, but could still have them. But I could be wrong.

That's my understanding as well -- the judges who had two career clerks are grandfathered in though. New judges can only have one.

As I understand the rules, there’s no limit on how many career clerks a judge can have. There’s a limit on how many JS14s a judge can have (one), and that rule took effect a decade or so ago. The grandfathering allows more than one JS14 per chamber if one is a career clerk who was there before the rule took effect

Thanks all, encouraging to hear of some jobs where I could still practice, though I wouldn’t rule out something where I couldn’t. I’m anticipating a pay cut obviously but hoping for a better qol. Honestly I just like research and writing a lot.

Look at Legislative Attorney openings at the Congressional Research Service.