Post-Clerkship Employment and Geographical Ties Forum
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Anonymous User
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Post-Clerkship Employment and Geographical Ties
Does the location of a federal clerkship have an impact on where one can get a job afterwards? Or can you go basically wherever (assuming you have other ties)?
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Anonymous User
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Re: Post-Clerkship Employment and Geographical Ties
It kind of depends, I think. I did a clerkship in what people here would call a flyover district (it’s a great place, but not NYC/DC/LA/SF etc) that’s not where I got jobs after. I’ve definitely got a lot of benefit from the clerkship even though I don’t practice anywhere near there. The fact of having done a clerkship still matters regardless of where it was.
That said, I would imagine that there are situations where you’ll get more benefits locally. If I’d stayed in my clerkship district, I could have benefited specifically from my judge having local connections and advocating for me (that hasn’t happened for me because they don’t have connections where I currently work). Some employers may put more value on experience with local judges, or certain local judges, or may value specific kinds of caseloads more highly (like if you clerk in a patent-heavy district). And while I haven’t really encountered this myself, there may be people out there like on this site, obsessed with rankings, who put special value on the “prestigious” districts. I don’t think this means that they won’t value “flyover” clerkships at all, and I don’t think this is actually a huge thing, but I don’t travel in the most elite circles and can’t say no one is ever snobby in this profession. So while you can go anywhere and employers who value federal clerkships will still value your clerkship, you may get more value in the district where you clerked.
Conversely, doing a clerkship doesn’t necessarily transform you as a candidate. If you weren’t competitive for (say) biglaw before the clerkship, you may not be any more competitive after the clerkship. So having a clerkship in itself doesn’t mean you can go anywhere that you have ties.
That said, I would imagine that there are situations where you’ll get more benefits locally. If I’d stayed in my clerkship district, I could have benefited specifically from my judge having local connections and advocating for me (that hasn’t happened for me because they don’t have connections where I currently work). Some employers may put more value on experience with local judges, or certain local judges, or may value specific kinds of caseloads more highly (like if you clerk in a patent-heavy district). And while I haven’t really encountered this myself, there may be people out there like on this site, obsessed with rankings, who put special value on the “prestigious” districts. I don’t think this means that they won’t value “flyover” clerkships at all, and I don’t think this is actually a huge thing, but I don’t travel in the most elite circles and can’t say no one is ever snobby in this profession. So while you can go anywhere and employers who value federal clerkships will still value your clerkship, you may get more value in the district where you clerked.
Conversely, doing a clerkship doesn’t necessarily transform you as a candidate. If you weren’t competitive for (say) biglaw before the clerkship, you may not be any more competitive after the clerkship. So having a clerkship in itself doesn’t mean you can go anywhere that you have ties.
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mardash
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Re: Post-Clerkship Employment and Geographical Ties
I worked in a major market lit group and the people with clerkships were from all over—and none in the market we were in. Clerkships are valued, at least at most firms, regardless of “prestige.” That said, I would second that if you’re doing patent lit a clerkship in DED, E/W Tex., California, or at the Federal Circuit are definitely valued highly.
