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In other threads, I see people say a good exit option for a State Appellate Clerkship is a Federal District Court. How does the timing work for this since the feds hire so far out?

Specifically, I am interested in clerking for one of New York State Appellate Divisions (mainly the 1st and 2nd, but looking Upstate too) and hoping to possibly use that as a stepping stone to the SDNY or EDNY (perhaps NDNY and WDNY). I graduate in 2018, so will need to apply for the State Appellate Divisions in the Spring/Summer of 2017.

1. Won't the federal district courts would be near full for 2019-2020 by the time I know if I am in with the NY Appellate Division in the fall of 2017?

2. How do I leverage the State level judge's recommendations to federal judges if they don't even know me yet?

The timing of all this seems so far out, and I don't see how I can leverage the state experience if I have to apply for the federal judges so early. Anyone made this transition in New York?

I don't know of anyone who's gone from a NY intermediate appellate court to SDNY/EDNY. Those are competitive districts, and my gut is that an intermediate state appellate clerkship isn't going to be a game changer absent the necessary credentials. It could make a difference for NDNY and WDNY, unless they're more competitive than I think they are.

Intermediate state court to SDNY or EDNY seems exceedingly unlikely. Everyone I know who clerked before SDNY/EDNY was clerking on a COA.

As someone you might have seen post about this, who went state intermediate --> federal district and knew people who did, let me clarify that NONE of them went to SDNY/EDNY and even I agree that would be unlikely. A federal clerkship straight from a state intermediate is a good outcome and a possible outcome but not what you'd call a standard option. The possible exception would be if there is a NY intermediate judge who knows/has pull with an SDNY/EDNY judge. Upstate seems much more likely.

(Timing-wise I don't think you'd be completely out of luck for all district court clerkships everywhere for 2019-20, but I don't know when SNDY/EDNY hire, though I suspect they're going to be on the earlier end, which is another problem for you. Re leverage - my state COA judge didn't go to bat for me with the federal judge because I got the federal before I clerked a single day for the state; the federal judge just liked that I would have the experience. Some judges will go to bat for new hires, some won't. It's just going to depend.)

BlackAndOrange84 wrote:I don't know of anyone who's gone from a NY intermediate appellate court to SDNY/EDNY. Those are competitive districts, and my gut is that an intermediate state appellate clerkship isn't going to be a game changer absent the necessary credentials. It could make a difference for NDNY and WDNY, unless they're more competitive than I think they are.

Current clerk in NDNY/WDNY. Most of the clerk positions in these districts are filled by career clerks. That does not leave many slots left for term clerks. All of the term clerks I have met went to top schools (with good, but not necessarily EDNY/SDNY, grades) and had ties to the area. Its definitely not as competitive as the NYC area courts, but because there are so few spots for term clerks, it seems more competitive than your 'average' fly-over district court.

I would say that if you are not competitive for a federal clerkship without the state clerkship, you probably wont be competitive with it. Though with that said, clerkship hiring is idiosyncratic so you might find a judge that wants someone with state court experience.

NDNY seems ties conscious. I had SDNY/EDNY level creds (and got interviews in those districts), but I got no interviews for NDNY spots even though I applied to a couple.

Even if you're qualified for SDNY/EDNY, unless you're at the head of the queue (such that you could probably land a position there right out of law school) I wouldn't be optimistic about getting a NY district court for any particular term: there are simply too many applicants chasing too few positions.