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Everyone says the way to break into appellate without a SCOTUS clerkship is to do state work, and I'm curious to hear general thoughts from any attorneys who have state appeals practices. How you broke into it/how competitive it is, your balance of trial vs. appellate, local counsel vs. self-originated, and paying vs. pro bono work, the size of the bar in your jurisdiction, etc. I know Texas and California have large specialized appellate bars, and I'm thinking more about (at least somewhat) smaller states without direct equivalents.

If you can, why don't you get on the Criminal Justice Act appellate panel and take appointed cases to start. IDK about state panels, but the current federal rate is $155/hour and I was let on my circuit court's when the extent of my experience was that I had helped out on another appeal. (My name hadn't even appeared on the brief.)

Though the pay generally isn't great, a lot of states have dedicated appellate attorneys in the state AG's office. Many DA's offices and PD offices also have dedicated appellate attorneys as well.