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I feel like my career is kind of going nowhere without a clerkship - I won't make partner at my firm, and other firms have not seemed interested, largely, it seems, because of this gap on my resume.

I'm wondering about salary, though. I'm a fourth-year associate now. How can I figure out my approximate grade and level on the table?

It's just by years of experience. New grad is JS-11, one year experience is JS-12, 2 years is JS-13. If you have 3 years of experience or more it is possible to be JS-14, but apparently you need to have 2 years experience as a federal clerk, and a judge can only have one JS-14 per chambers, so you likely wouldn't qualify and if there's a career clerk it wouldn't be an option. All of these are at step 1 (if you did become a career clerk then the steps would come into play but they don't for term clerks). There's a line saying that it might be possible to match a former federal salary. Otherwise to my knowledge there isn't a way to negotiate for a different salary.

See https://oscar.uscourts.gov/qualificatio ... y_benefits

That's interesting. Thanks. It looks like in the N.D. Illinois, where I would be applying, I would make around $92,000-$98,000, hopefully. That would be a considerable temporary paycut, but I would think it would pay off in the long run.

The question is whether I will be able to land a clerkship. I graduated just above median at a T6 and have four years of biglaw experience, at this point. I feel like I'm a dime a dozen.

A clerkship in NDIL is almost certainly a no go, but you should be able to land something in a less competitive district somewhere in the country.

Anonymous User wrote:A clerkship in NDIL is almost certainly a no go, but you should be able to land something in a less competitive district somewhere in the country.

I'm not certain the above is true. I went to school in the area and had a good amount of contact with some of the judges. If OP works as a biglaw associate in Chicago (especially if OP works for Kirkland), at least one of the judges would pick him up as a clerk.

What's your connection to Chicago, OP?

Is it really true that lack of clerkship prevents you from partnership and other career prospect?

Anonymous User wrote:Is it really true that lack of clerkship prevents you from partnership and other career prospect?

I second this question. Unless your firm tells you that they support this and that they'll take you back when the clerkship is done, I really wouldn't do it. A clerkship as a 5th year is just bad timing. Clerking as a junior means missing out on trivial bullshit. Clerking as a midlevel means missing out on meaningful work that will help you improve as an attorney. Up to you, but I'd strongly counsel against this.

Unless you have a deal w/your current firm I think at this point you're clerking to make a move. Which is reasonable enough. I don't know if I agree that 4th-5th year work is really that much more meaningful than 1-3, but I guess it depends on where you're at and who you're working for and what the general perception is.