Post-Clerkship Job hunting (fall 2015 hiring cycle) Forum

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sun Jan 04, 2015 10:37 pm

nickelanddime wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
nickelanddime wrote:Bump. Have people started sending out resumes yet? Are you sending them directly to the HR/Recruiting staff listed on law firm websites, or are you using headhunters?
I have sent out about two dozen. Recently was contacted by a partner who said get back in touch closer to the end of my clerkship.
Was this biglaw?

Mid-sized firm in big market, so true BigLaw probably wouldn't be that close to clerkship end. I have heard February or March. I sent batches before Christmas because I didn't want to procrastinate too much longer. I'm sure some will get tossed into a big heap, so I'll resend in a few months time.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 9:52 am

I accepted an offer from my summer firm before my clerkship began. Are there any negative consequences to renegging on the offer by switching firms? Is it common?

seizmaar · Post by **seizmaar** » Mon Jan 05, 2015 11:40 am

Anonymous User wrote:I accepted an offer from my summer firm before my clerkship began. Are there any negative consequences to renegging on the offer by switching firms? Is it common?

I just did this, and it was a much better experience than I feared. I opted to join the government, and most partners I spoke to understood that decision. My recruitment contact told me they generally understand the decision to go government, and they would only begrudge me if I chose another firm. But this happens all the time and people shouldn't be too surprised. By far the hardest part was writing the check to repay the bar stipend.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 1:05 pm

My chambers (satellite courthouse in large district) has started receiving letters inviting us to apply to big law firms and to attend clerk receptions. I think now might be the time to dust off the resume and start sending out emails.

BearState · Post by **BearState** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 4:30 pm

Anonymous User wrote:My chambers (satellite courthouse in large district) has started receiving letters inviting us to apply to big law firms and to attend clerk receptions. I think now might be the time to dust off the resume and start sending out emails.

Out of curiosity, can you give a general range of what district court clerks get solicitations? I.e., SDNY-DDC/NDIL-NDCAL-CDCAL/EDNY-EDPA/flyover?

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 5:41 pm

BearState wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:My chambers (satellite courthouse in large district) has started receiving letters inviting us to apply to big law firms and to attend clerk receptions. I think now might be the time to dust off the resume and start sending out emails.
Out of curiosity, can you give a general range of what district court clerks get solicitations? I.e., SDNY-DDC/NDIL-NDCAL-CDCAL/EDNY-EDPA/flyover?

I clerk in the middle of nowhere, and we still get solicitations. We may not get as many, and I suspect we don't, but do get some.

BearState · Post by **BearState** » Thu Jan 08, 2015 12:05 am

Anonymous User wrote:
BearState wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:My chambers (satellite courthouse in large district) has started receiving letters inviting us to apply to big law firms and to attend clerk receptions. I think now might be the time to dust off the resume and start sending out emails.
Out of curiosity, can you give a general range of what district court clerks get solicitations? I.e., SDNY-DDC/NDIL-NDCAL-CDCAL/EDNY-EDPA/flyover?
I clerk in the middle of nowhere, and we still get solicitations. We may not get as many, and I suspect we don't, but do get some.

Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 3:05 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
BearState wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:My chambers (satellite courthouse in large district) has started receiving letters inviting us to apply to big law firms and to attend clerk receptions. I think now might be the time to dust off the resume and start sending out emails.
Out of curiosity, can you give a general range of what district court clerks get solicitations? I.e., SDNY-DDC/NDIL-NDCAL-CDCAL/EDNY-EDPA/flyover?
I clerk in the middle of nowhere, and we still get solicitations. We may not get as many, and I suspect we don't, but do get some.

I clerk in the middle of nowhere too and we got like 3 solicitations the whole year lol

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 4:03 pm

Yeah, the above was my experience.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 7:45 am

Two sort of silly questions:

1. When a recruiting contact at a firm is listed by both email and address, should I send in hard copies or is email fine?

2. If I'm applying to firms that are far away from where I currently live, should I tell them that I will be in the area on X day? I will probably do this for small firms, but didnt know if I should do this for biglaw as well.

BVest · Post by **BVest** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 4:23 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Two sort of silly questions:

1. When a recruiting contact at a firm is listed by both email and address, should I send in hard copies or is email fine?

2. If I'm applying to firms that are far away from where I currently live, should I tell them that I will be in the area on X day? I will probably do this for small firms, but didnt know if I should do this for biglaw as well.

Email is fine, but always use PDF attachments for cover letter, etc.

I don't know about the latter question, but I suspect there's no harm in it. I might word it as "will be in Chicago and available for an interview February 2-5, but am also available to return on a date more in line with your schedule" or the like.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 5:34 pm

As someone who will be entering a clerkship (in D. Conn by way of reference) this year, I'm curious how you all approach DOJ and AUSA hiring. How far out do you apply and do they make offers months out the way big law firms do? If they don't, do you have to choose one or the other?

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sat Jan 10, 2015 6:16 pm

I clerked in a well-known district court last year (not SDNY/DDC, but next level down) and saw zero solicitations there. This year I moved up to COA, and while I've seen a variety of notices for fellowships and the like, only one firm has so far indicated that it's hiring.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:59 am

I've been thinking that minimalist cover letters are the way to go for big firms where I'm not applying for any specific practice group. (Law school, ties, clerkship, enclosures). Any contrary opinions ?

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 11:05 am

Anonymous User wrote:As someone who will be entering a clerkship (in D. Conn by way of reference) this year, I'm curious how you all approach DOJ and AUSA hiring. How far out do you apply and do they make offers months out the way big law firms do? If they don't, do you have to choose one or the other?

The background check required by DOJ/USAOs takes a pretty long time to complete, so you can apply relatively far out, since they wouldn't be expecting you to start work the next month or anything. I don't know how this coordinates with biglaw hiring (do you have an offer already or are you looking to apply also to biglaw firms?). The thing with DOJ/USAOs is that if there's an opening, you should apply and work out the timing later - there may not be an opening on your schedule.

seizmaar · Post by **seizmaar** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 11:33 am

Anonymous User wrote:As someone who will be entering a clerkship (in D. Conn by way of reference) this year, I'm curious how you all approach DOJ and AUSA hiring. How far out do you apply and do they make offers months out the way big law firms do? If they don't, do you have to choose one or the other?

do you have post-law school work experience? the honors program is your way in if the clerkship is your first job, and that will happen in the fall. otherwise i think you should look at USA JOBS and justice.gov starting a year out like the other dude said.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 12:43 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:
BearState wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:My chambers (satellite courthouse in large district) has started receiving letters inviting us to apply to big law firms and to attend clerk receptions. I think now might be the time to dust off the resume and start sending out emails.
Out of curiosity, can you give a general range of what district court clerks get solicitations? I.e., SDNY-DDC/NDIL-NDCAL-CDCAL/EDNY-EDPA/flyover?
I clerk in the middle of nowhere, and we still get solicitations. We may not get as many, and I suspect we don't, but do get some.
I clerk in the middle of nowhere too and we got like 3 solicitations the whole year lol

It's been the same experience for me in ND/CD Cal. Our chambers has gotten maybe 5-6 solicitations in the past year, and 3 of them have been for government fellowships. I actually decided to forego looking into other firms on the market and head back to my former firm in no small part out of convenience.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Tue Jan 13, 2015 10:06 pm

Have an interview with Williams and connolly later this month. Any reason to believe it may be different than the standard call back format / interview style? Also, is there any tactful way of leveraging that into interviews with other forms in which I'm interested? Definitely don't want to preemptively burn bridges...

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:02 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Have an interview with Williams and connolly later this month. Any reason to believe it may be different than the standard call back format / interview style? Also, is there any tactful way of leveraging that into interviews with other forms in which I'm interested? Definitely don't want to preemptively burn bridges...

Never interviewed with them but from what I hear "persoanlity fit" seems to be a big deal to the firm more than other firms. Also, if I was in that situation, I probably would contact few other firms in D.C. and say hey i'll be intown to interview with W&C and was wondering if i can set up an interview while im in town (Ofcourse, this is assuming you are clerking outside d.c.). Other than that, I don't know how you can leverge it other than to tactfully throw W&C in there DURING the interview with other firms.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:16 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Have an interview with Williams and connolly later this month. Any reason to believe it may be different than the standard call back format / interview style? Also, is there any tactful way of leveraging that into interviews with other forms in which I'm interested? Definitely don't want to preemptively burn bridges...

I interviewed with them during the regular OCI process, so YMMV because you're post-grad. I underestimated just how picky they are with regard to showing interest in DC. I thought everyone kind of assumes you want to be there, but that's definitely not the case with them. Be sure to highlight whatever DC connections you have on your resume, especially if you didn't summer in DC. Maybe it isn't as important since they know you're coming there if you accept the offer (as opposed to an SA who can use the W&C to snag a nice clerkship and then head to another market).

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 2:35 pm

BK clerk here. With filings down, I think I'm going to broaden my job search to include general commercial litigation as well. Does anyone have any tips on how to craft a cover letter that express interest in both bankruptcy specifically but also commercial litigation without sounding like "omg just give me a job in anything"?

run26.2 · Post by **run26.2** » Thu Jan 15, 2015 2:50 pm

Why don't you try writing something and running it by a co-clerk or friend with experience? This type of skill is, presumably, why you went into law, and your ability to be persuasive will improve with practice.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Wed Jan 21, 2015 12:02 pm

Not sure if this will help anyone but: we have gotten a flood of recruiting materials since the new year, and only got one or two things since I started in March.

So, to me, that confirms the common TLS wisdom that firms don't start considering new hires until around this time of year.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Fri Jan 30, 2015 7:23 pm

I had an interview in a major city recently. Can anyone comment on whether law clerk hiring is as quick as OCI hiring? Or do firms generally take more time to decide on clerks?

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Fri Jan 30, 2015 9:34 pm

BearState wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:My chambers (satellite courthouse in large district) has started receiving letters inviting us to apply to big law firms and to attend clerk receptions. I think now might be the time to dust off the resume and start sending out emails.
Out of curiosity, can you give a general range of what district court clerks get solicitations? I.e., SDNY-DDC/NDIL-NDCAL-CDCAL/EDNY-EDPA/flyover?

I clerk in a somewhat rural area (in a fairly large city) in a non-competitive district, and we get tons of solicitations.

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