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I was hoping someone might be able to share some information on how U.S. firms value clerkships from other jurisdictions.

I've been fortunate to be selected as a judicial clerk for one of the most prestigious appeal courts in Canada. Obviously I wouldn't expect to be on equal footing with a clerk from an American court, however, I'm wondering if American big law firms might still value the experience enough to want to hire a Canadian clerk. On the other hand, I would also be prepared to have a firm place little to no weight on the experience.

Any basic information would be appreciated, thank you!

I'd guess they wouldn't value it that much. Because people are less likely to be familiar with it, it's not going to immediately signal (like a district or COA clerkship does) that you've gotten a position that's extremely difficult to get. It's also not going to be immediately obvious whether any substantive knowledge transfers (although you can talk about how it does in an interview), and, unless the firm has a big practice in Canada, you also won't benefit from the idea that you're especially familiar with the inner workings of a court that the firm appears before.

ETA I'm not that familiar with this subject, so I could be very wrong. Just extrapolating from the reasons that big employers value federal clerkships.

gronk wrote:I was hoping someone might be able to share some information on how U.S. firms value clerkships from other jurisdictions.

I've been fortunate to be selected as a judicial clerk for one of the most prestigious appeal courts in Canada. Obviously I wouldn't expect to be on equal footing with a clerk from an American court, however, I'm wondering if American big law firms might still value the experience enough to want to hire a Canadian clerk. On the other hand, I would also be prepared to have a firm place little to no weight on the experience.

Any basic information would be appreciated, thank you!

My understanding is that firms don't value it much. For instance, it's not an automatic bonus + seniority for COA -- it needs case-by-case approval (ETA: but it's automatic for SSC I think). It also doesn't have the same signalling factor, and doesn't translate into direct substantive experience that's useful for the firm either. It's obviously not a dock against you, especially if you're Canadian-trained, but it's just not valued in the same way that a US Art III clerkship is. Just imagine how Canadian firms would view Supreme Court of [some non-Canadian, non-US country] -- probably something like "oh cool. okay moving on." But I do know former Canadian COA/SSC clerks getting hired by Big Law firms too. I don't know whether the Canadian clerkship helped with hiring, or they were just strong candidates to begin with.

My officemate at a V15 clerked for their country's COA and wasn't given a bonus or class credit at our firm.