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Just wanted to make sure that the following is true as I heard from another clerk: if you are doing two clerkships, but don't go straight from one clerkship to the other, you lose out on your pay bump because you have to officially resign from the former clerkship.

For example, if clerkship A starts in August and ends in August, clerkship B would have to start in August. If clerkship B starts, for example, a month later, you would have to resign from clerkship A, take a break for a month, and then start clerkship B. By doing so you apparently don't get the credit for the previous judicial clerkship for salary purposes.

Is there any truth to this?

It depends. Check with HR at the court of your second clerkship.

Anonymous User wrote:Just wanted to make sure that the following is true as I heard from another clerk: if you are doing two clerkships, but don't go straight from one clerkship to the other, you lose out on your pay bump because you have to officially resign from the former clerkship.

For example, if clerkship A starts in August and ends in August, clerkship B would have to start in August. If clerkship B starts, for example, a month later, you would have to resign from clerkship A, take a break for a month, and then start clerkship B. By doing so you apparently don't get the credit for the previous judicial clerkship for salary purposes.

Is there any truth to this?

There's a lot of variance in how positions marketed as "clerkships" are characterized for HR purposes so, although I don't think what you were told is necessarily true, pupkin's response is the credited one.

I received a salary bump for a previous clerkship when it was a state clerkship, and the salary bump was based purely on legal experience (which is pretty universal in the federal system), not specific employer, so what you were told doesn't make sense to me. But since different districts/judges handle things differently, rpupkin is right, talk to HR.

this doesn't sound right. it's not based on continuous government employment, its based on experience level.

A law clerk’s salary depends upon legal work experience subsequent to graduation from law school, bar membership, and applicable locality pay adjustments:

JSP-11, step 1 – Law school graduates with academic excellence and no legal work experience. Annual base salary is $51,811(plus applicable locality rate).
JSP-12, step 1 – One or more years of post-graduate legal work experience and bar membership. Annual base salary is $62,101 (plus applicable locality rate).
JPS-13, step 1 – Two or more years of post-graduate legal work experience and bar membership. Annual base salary is $73,846 (plus applicable locality rate).

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

District court to circuit court clerk here.

The AO calculates pay steps based on literally having 52 weeks of experience each year. If you come straight out of law school into Clerkship 1, you'll be a JSP 11/1. If Clerkship 1 ends on week 50, you will start Clerkship 2 as a JSP 11/1, but then once you have worked for 2 weeks, you will automatically get a raise to JSP 11/2 and be eligible for a promotion to JSP 12/1. That's the critical part--your judge has to sign off on the paperwork that gives you the promotion.

The 52-week thing also matters if you're going to take a week off between clerkships or anything like that. If you only work 11 months at Clerkship 1 and take a month off, you will still start as a JSP 11/1 at Clerkship 2 because you haven't worked a full 52 weeks. Once you work the remaining month, you are eligible for promotion to JSP 12/1.