And, of course, did not deign to tell you until after you had started.Anonymous User wrote:I have. They basically just said they had the same and suffered through it.
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this. There's a school of thought that would say, "Get through the year; the benefits of survival outweigh the possible damage to your career of leaving early" (this assumes that the prestige of your current position carries some kind of bonus). But a year isn't nothing, and if the pressure never lets up, it can do actual damage to you. Our profession sometimes treats tyrannical, nasty bosses as if they are inevitable, or even as if they are character-building in some way--which is why, even before the sexual allegations came out, people treated Kozinski clerks as if they had demonstrated nerves of steel, as opposed to simply being willing to take a year of psychological abuse for a chance at a Kennedy clerkship.
Are you the sole clerk in chambers? Is it a big courthouse with other people around who can be a source of support (and who can back you up if things get too intense)? Have people quit before? If things don't change, do you think that it might lead to harm? These are all questions worth asking.
And fuck those prior clerks for not warning you. That's cold.
