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I'll be clerking at SDNY either next year or the year after that. I'm currently trying to decide whether I should be applying to COA clerkships as well. I obviously see the benefit/prestige of clerking at the circuit level, given that it is only a year commitment. However, my ultimate goal is to work at the USAO. How valuable or how much of an incremental benefit would I get if I had an additional circuit clerkship under my belt in addition to my SDNY clerkship when applying to the USAO?

If I do apply, should I only consider applying to a circuit in the state in which I would want to work as an AUSA in the future? For example, if I want to be in CA should I even bother applying to other circuits?

I'm assuming that if I don't do a circuit clerkship, I would be using that same year trying to gain more trial experience while at my firm (e.g. pro bono work, etc.)

Happy to provide more color if needed.

The answer here is frustrating: it just depends a hell of a lot on the particular USAO and the US Atty/First Assistant's hiring preferences. Obvious exception: if you want to be an appellate section AUSA then I'd suspect there's a major benefit there. (Think this has been discussed before FWIW - might wanna try to find those threads)

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I don't mean to hijack this thread, but is pursuing a district court clerkship worth it if you want to be an AUSA but already have a COA clerkship? If so, are there any specific districts I should be targeting?

I think a district ct clerkship is much more relevant/helpful for being an AUSA than COA is. I have also known people applying to USAOs with only a COA to face suspicion that they only want to do appeals and won't be willing to get down in the trial trenches as a line AUSA. I'm sure that's not universal because different offices value different things in hiring, but it's what I've encountered.

As for which district: 1) the district where you want to be an AUSA, or 2) a district that handles similar cases (if the USAO has a distinctive caseload, like immigration on the border), or 3) it doesn't really matter much. The skills are transferable.