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If you can afford to take the pay hit for a year then yes, I think it makes sense. It also sounds like you're mentally committed to clerking and are looking for reasons not to, but I don't think there are good reasons to go straight to firm other than money. One of my co clerks was in the exact same position (HYS foreigner), took a volunteer clerkship, and has no regrets.

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If the judge is willing to treat it as any other clerkship, and allows you to put it on your resume as any other clerkship, AND you can somehow handle a year in NYC without pay (if you're graduating with 120k in loans, I don't see how this will practically work), then I think it's worthwhile in the long term.

Can you get an SSC clerkship somewhere? Most firms aren't going to give you much credit for clerking on a state trial court or intermediate court of appeals, but the prevailing practice is to give a bonus/class year bump if you clerk on a state's highest court.

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