Will it significantly harm my career if I don't clerk? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I joined the FTC as a lateral after spending several years at a firm, and have served on hiring committees here. You don't need to have clerked to get a job here (I didn't, for one), but as others have mentioned: (a) it certainly helps to give your resume a boost, especially if you did not attend a tippity-top law school; and (b) it will likely help to give you some valuable knowledge/understanding of litigation, especially compared to spending that year in big law, where you'll likely just review documents and play third or fourth fiddle on a case at best. So, I'd tell you to do it if you can.

Somewhat of a sidebar, but do people who joined right after law school ever take a year break from the FTC (or other similar agencies, if anyone else can chime in) to clerk and then come back?
I imagine it may be uncommon or inadvisable now with the staffing shortage but wondering if it might be encouraged or worthwhile for those in litigating shops who want to stay there for the long-run.

[Anonymous User]

I joined the FTC as a lateral after spending several years at a firm, and have served on hiring committees here. You don't need to have clerked to get a job here (I didn't, for one), but as others have mentioned: (a) it certainly helps to give your resume a boost, especially if you did not attend a tippity-top law school; and (b) it will likely help to give you some valuable knowledge/understanding of litigation, especially compared to spending that year in big law, where you'll likely just review documents and play third or fourth fiddle on a case at best. So, I'd tell you to do it if you can.

Somewhat of a sidebar, but do people who joined right after law school ever take a year break from the FTC (or other similar agencies, if anyone else can chime in) to clerk and then come back?
I imagine it may be uncommon or inadvisable now with the staffing shortage but wondering if it might be encouraged or worthwhile for those in litigating shops who want to stay there for the long-run.

I can’t say that this has never happened, but there isn’t really a good mechanism for holding your job open. I suspect for conflicts reasons there would be a reluctance for you just to go on leave while working somewhere else, and if you have to actually leave and be re-hired, that would be a huge PITA and take a lot of time and effort. If someone else knows of this happening I’ll happily admit I’m wrong, but I’ve never heard of it.

(For one thing, not many people enter these agencies straight after law school - in most cases the only entry level jobs are through honors programs, and they tend to favor people who’ve already clerked. It’s not a hard and fast requirement, but it’s another reason what you propose is unlikely.)

[Anonymous User]

I joined the FTC as a lateral after spending several years at a firm, and have served on hiring committees here. You don't need to have clerked to get a job here (I didn't, for one), but as others have mentioned: (a) it certainly helps to give your resume a boost, especially if you did not attend a tippity-top law school; and (b) it will likely help to give you some valuable knowledge/understanding of litigation, especially compared to spending that year in big law, where you'll likely just review documents and play third or fourth fiddle on a case at best. So, I'd tell you to do it if you can.

Somewhat of a sidebar, but do people who joined right after law school ever take a year break from the FTC (or other similar agencies, if anyone else can chime in) to clerk and then come back?
I imagine it may be uncommon or inadvisable now with the staffing shortage but wondering if it might be encouraged or worthwhile for those in litigating shops who want to stay there for the long-run.

I can’t say that this has never happened, but there isn’t really a good mechanism for holding your job open. I suspect for conflicts reasons there would be a reluctance for you just to go on leave while working somewhere else, and if you have to actually leave and be re-hired, that would be a huge PITA and take a lot of time and effort. If someone else knows of this happening I’ll happily admit I’m wrong, but I’ve never heard of it.

(For one thing, not many people enter these agencies straight after law school - in most cases the only entry level jobs are through honors programs, and they tend to favor people who’ve already clerked. It’s not a hard and fast requirement, but it’s another reason what you propose is unlikely.)

Fair enough - thanks for the reply; basically what I figured. I'm a 3L and one of those entering straight from school and was never super interested in clerking despite being pretty qualified on paper. I've had slightly more interest as of late for the sake of the experience and longer-term connections, so was curious as I know this is common at firms. Perhaps worth exploring in the future but understood that it'd be tricky and probably not worth it.

[Anonymous User]

I had basically the worst clerkship experience you can have, judge I did not get along with, minimal to no mentorship, minimal work on anything related to my current practice, stuck in a part of the country I did not enjoy.

Still happy I did it. I walked into my first firm with instant credibility, got to work on more substantive work from day one and quickly build up a good reputation (and avoid boring work / work I did not want to do.) Honestly it probably helped extend my life at a firm (I'm not sure I would have survived being a doc review monkey and I got the benefit of the doubt from some early mistakes where I otherwise would have risked getting the mediocre associate title early on) so even the economic impact seems minimal in hindsight - I would trade my first year salary for 1-3 extra years at the mid level bracket.

None of this would be impossible without clerking, but it was easier (and it's really nice knowing I'll have it on my resume when I make a push for a fed job eventually.)

[Anonymous User]

I joined the FTC as a lateral after spending several years at a firm, and have served on hiring committees here. You don't need to have clerked to get a job here (I didn't, for one), but as others have mentioned: (a) it certainly helps to give your resume a boost, especially if you did not attend a tippity-top law school; and (b) it will likely help to give you some valuable knowledge/understanding of litigation, especially compared to spending that year in big law, where you'll likely just review documents and play third or fourth fiddle on a case at best. So, I'd tell you to do it if you can.

Somewhat of a sidebar, but do people who joined right after law school ever take a year break from the FTC (or other similar agencies, if anyone else can chime in) to clerk and then come back?
I imagine it may be uncommon or inadvisable now with the staffing shortage but wondering if it might be encouraged or worthwhile for those in litigating shops who want to stay there for the long-run.

I can’t say that this has never happened, but there isn’t really a good mechanism for holding your job open. I suspect for conflicts reasons there would be a reluctance for you just to go on leave while working somewhere else, and if you have to actually leave and be re-hired, that would be a huge PITA and take a lot of time and effort. If someone else knows of this happening I’ll happily admit I’m wrong, but I’ve never heard of it.

(For one thing, not many people enter these agencies straight after law school - in most cases the only entry level jobs are through honors programs, and they tend to favor people who’ve already clerked. It’s not a hard and fast requirement, but it’s another reason what you propose is unlikely.)

Fair enough - thanks for the reply; basically what I figured. I'm a 3L and one of those entering straight from school and was never super interested in clerking despite being pretty qualified on paper. I've had slightly more interest as of late for the sake of the experience and longer-term connections, so was curious as I know this is common at firms. Perhaps worth exploring in the future but understood that it'd be tricky and probably not worth it.

I'm the poster of the first message quoted above. As the other poster mentioned, there's not really any way to hold your position open when you leave the agency, and you have to be formally re-hired to return. There's one person I know who left the FTC for a year; they had to go through the hiring process again, and were lucky that the division had a spot open up at the right time for them to make the transition back to the agency. The hiring process will presumably be smoother when you return (background checks are good for 5 years, and you may well have cleared a bunch of the other admin hurdles in the hiring process already, with no need to do them again), but still, the whole thing is very much unlike a firm, where you could return more or less seamlessly after clerking. If you want to stay here for the long run, you do that by staying, rather than by leaving to do something else for a while and hoping to come back.