One year at big law then 2 clerkships--bad idea? Forum

[achilles42]

HI all,

Thanks in advance for the TLS Wisdom. I was fortunate to land a COA starting 1 year after I graduate, leaving me w/ a gap year. I am in the process of parlaying that COA into a d.ct clerkship. Ideally, I would fill the gap year and go law school --> dct --> coa --> biglaw. I am finding, though, that most of the best dct clerkships (DDC/EDNY/EDVA etc.) want/prefer a clerk for AFTER the COA. So far I have been against that idea, as law school --> 1 yr biglaw --> dct --> coa --> big law, seems like a terrible idea...but I am beginning to question that.

Is 1 yr of biglaw then 2 clerkships actually horrendous? Has anyone done it? If it is a bad idea, at what point does the prestige of the Dct outweigh the bad idea of doing 1 yr in biglaw [e.g. better to take the DDC/SDNY for post-COA, or better to take random DCt for post law school]. How pissed would the firm be if I did 1 yr then tried to take 2 yrs off...?

Any and all advice is warmly welcomed. Thanks so much again for help.

[Anonymous User]

Did something similar. Not a bad idea. Maybe even a great idea.

You'll spend a year at a firm, doing things that firm lawyers do. If you decide that's the kind of job you want to stick with, you're in a good position: you'll know the ropes already, most firms like having clerks come back, you'll probably get a nice bonus, and you might even move straight into a good practice group.

If you decide that you hate firm life/work, you're also in a solid position: you've got great credentials, good recs from judges (hopefully), and some actual legal experience. The year of work under your belt makes you more attractive for gov't/PI orgs, IMHO, than people applying straight out of a clerkship (even multi clerkships).

Also the money's not bad. I say do it.

[Anonymous User]

HI all,

Thanks in advance for the TLS Wisdom. I was fortunate to land a COA starting 1 year after I graduate, leaving me w/ a gap year. I am in the process of parlaying that COA into a d.ct clerkship. Ideally, I would fill the gap year and go law school --> dct --> coa --> biglaw. I am finding, though, that most of the best dct clerkships (DDC/EDNY/EDVA etc.) want/prefer a clerk for AFTER the COA. So far I have been against that idea, as law school --> 1 yr biglaw --> dct --> coa --> big law, seems like a terrible idea...but I am beginning to question that.

Is 1 yr of biglaw then 2 clerkships actually horrendous? Has anyone done it? If it is a bad idea, at what point does the prestige of the Dct outweigh the bad idea of doing 1 yr in biglaw [e.g. better to take the DDC/SDNY for post-COA, or better to take random DCt for post law school]. How pissed would the firm be if I did 1 yr then tried to take 2 yrs off...?

Any and all advice is warmly welcomed. Thanks so much again for help.

I'm in the midst of doing this now, and I don't think its a horrendous idea, although some of that may be unique to my circumstances. In any event though I actually think it's probably better than doing 2 clerkships straight out of law school.

I also lined up my first clerkship (although d.ct. in my case) for 1 year out. This happened after I had accepted with my summer firm, but I let them know and they were fine with me coming back for approx. 1 year before heading out to clerk. I never caught any flack from people for the decision - everyone seemed to understand the value of clerking - although because I was going from a secondary market to a major market for my clerkship I definitely got some questions about my desire to remain in that secondary market. It sounds like you are (probably) in a major market, so I doubt your firm would have that much of an issue, particularly if the district and/or circuit you clerk in is one where your firm practices a lot.

In any event, I lined up a second clerkship recently and accepted that for next year. My circumstances are a little different than yours in that I have pretty much decided I don't want to go back to big law after, and only applied for the second clerkship with an eye toward returning to my home market and building PI/gov't ties.

Nonetheless here's why I don't think the big law -> clerkship x2 -> big law path is a bad idea: I think firms will be less reticent to give two years of class credit + bonus to someone who already has a year of big law of experience than if you are coming in with 2 years of credit but never worked in big law before. There's a lot of shit work you will learn how to do as a stub/first year before your clerkship, and I think being able to tell your firm (or a different firm if you decide to switch after clerking) that you've done doc review, made depo binders, drafted garbage motions, etc. will alleviate any 2 clerkship stigma that might exist.

[achilles42]

Awesome. Both posts have helped enormously and I think I am leaning towards this path. It will help alleviate money issues + give me options. Yes I am in major market, and my CoA is near that major market / firm is in that mkt. I want to do a Dct in same mkt to increase network + learn the ropes of trial (as I am interested in potential prosecution work down the line).

In any event, really helpful--thanks both of you!!!