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So I accepted a clerkship with a feeder COA judge a little while ago for 2017-2018. I know some people do two COA clerkships, and a lot of people do District --> COA. This is a somewhat hypothetical, but I am curious about what doing a District Court clerkship after the COA clerkship would be like. My general thought is that I would do the first clerkship, go to a firm, and the apply to SCOTUS after a year or two. That said, I know that District Court clerkships can be extremely valuable experiences in that they involve a different skill set and a different type of work than COA clerkships.

Given that:

1) Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this would be a worthwhile experience?

2) All I really know about District Court clerkships is that some districts like SDNY/DDC are more "prestigious," but I don't really know anything about particular judges. I am assuming that if I got a top COA clerkship, I should be extremely competitive most places. If I do apply, are there any particular judges that should be at the top of my list, especially in terms of SCOTUS applications down the line?

3) I've seen a little talk about 2018 applications already starting some places. Is that true?

I can't speak in any way to any of the SCOTUS stuff, but I do know a number of people who've done DCt clerkships after doing COA (one was with a semi-feeder, I think), and they all found it completely worthwhile, just because the experiences are so different. Although it may be slightly more common to do it the other way around, there's nothing wrong with doing DCt after COA - the order really doesn't make any difference. (Again, barring anything SCOTUS-specific, at least.)

There are district judges who have close relationships with feeder COA judges (Rakoff and Thapar are examples) and other district judges who have sent a number of their clerks on to SCOTUS clerkships (Boasberg and Feinerman are two that come to mind). I know nothing about maximizing one's SCOTUS chances (my district judge and COA judge are decidedly non-feeders), but I can't imagine that a district court stop between an ultra-competitive COA clerkship and a SCOTUS clerkship would be looked upon unfavorably. You'd learn a lot and there'd be more action than in the COA clerkship. And, if you manage to snag a clerkship with a feeder judge, then you'd likely be very competitive for one of the better-known district judges and/or the more highly regarded districts (D.D.C., C.D. Cal., N.D. Cal., E.D.N.Y., and S.D.N.Y.).

I don't think this is that uncommon for people that actually intend to litigate, although my sense is that its more frequent coming from a slower moving circuit to a faster moving district.

I did COA feeder -> d.ct. It was great.