Top Law Schools

...

tl;dr: Please tell me that my decision to do a second clerkship in about a year wasn't a huge mistake, and that it makes objective long-term sense for my life/career, despite my subjective short-term dread.

You say exciting biglaw job but once your 7-8-9 months in I bet you'll be glad to get a chance to clerk again and you'll be able to do so with some money in your pocket.

Stop overthinking stuff and just finish your clerkships. You're already committed to clerking for another year so what can you do about it at this point? It's only a year. It will fly by, then you'll start big law. Are you really asking whether clerking for a COA judge in DC is a "huge career mistake" as opposed to entering generic big law a year earlier? It's not worth analyzing in this much depth.

OP here. I appreciate the responses, and I agree that I am over thinking it. I just figure that these feelings can't be unique to me, and that somebody on here might have some insight based on their own experience.

For clarification, I have never even for a second considered pulling out of the second clerkship, i'm 100% committed to doing it and working my ass off while I am there. My question is really not "have I made a mistake/how can I get out of it" but rather "what can I do to get excited about it/get my mind right about going back to the second clerkship, such that I can make the most of the opportunity."

Got it. Then I would agree with what the previous poster said. You will probably reflect fondly on your "boring" clerking days during the big law grind. I would make the most of the opportunity by reminding myself of the horror to come, but that's just me.

Biglaw =/= exciting

The second clerkship will be especially valuable once you realize that biglaw isn't fun, and you decide to move to something else.

(Also, just want to get this out of the way: I know that the conventional wisdom around here is that a COA clerkship on top of a D.Ct. clerkship is only worth it if you really want to do appellate work, or you're interested in "prestige" firms, or something like that, but that's...not true. Lawyers are elitists. Recruiting/hiring partners like hiring people with COA clerkships on their resumes. The credential will always help you find a different job.)

I think it's normal to get a little bored or anxious toward the end of a clerkship. Like others have said, though, you'll probably feel that way a lot during your first year in biglaw and maybe during the COA clerkship, too. I doubt it's specific to your d. ct. clerkship.

Biglaw sucks. Your careeer is long. Either you'll love biglaw and be excited to come back or you'll be thanking your lucky stars you have an out after only a year.

Clerking will obviously be a big step down in terms of pay from biglaw, but for your second clerkship you should be eligible for GS 13, and that is much more comfortable to live on than GS 11, which I am assuming you are at now. Just to look on the bright side…

My situation: I was one of the top few students in my T20

No one else bothered a bit by this phrase?

Anonymous User wrote:tl;dr: Please tell me that my decision to do a second clerkship in about a year wasn't a huge mistake, and that it makes objective long-term sense for my life/career, despite my subjective short-term dread.

It's not a huge mistake, but it does sound like a minor mistake in your case. Some folks are better off doing one clerkship and then moving on with their careers, and you're probably one of those people. If you don't have a particular desire to clerk, a second clerkship usually doesn't make a lot of sense, especially if you already have the long-term job you want. And you'll leave to clerk after just one year of practice, which means you'll never really get into the flow of things at your law firm.

But clerking is fun, and the issues you'll encounter as a COA clerk will be interesting. You might end up a better writer because of the experience, which will help you long term. So, while I'm not going to say that you definitely made the right choice, I also don't think this is something to beat yourself up over. You decided to do a second clerkship. Now go make the most of it.

mvp99 wrote:My situation: I was one of the top few students in my T20

No one else bothered a bit by this phrase?

No, it's a statement of fact. I'm sure OP is saying that he/she ranked among the top 3 or 5 students in his/her class.

Martin Brody wrote:Biglaw sucks. Your careeer is long. Either you'll love biglaw and be excited to come back or you'll be thanking your lucky stars you have an out after only a year.

This is probably among the best comments in here I think.
A COA clerkship may or may not help your career depending on what you do but it almost cannot hurt.
I think that one year in biglaw you will find that it's not very exciting. There are exceptions, but... few.
Finance wise, well, at least if you're heading back to the firm after the COA clerkship you might be able to negotiate another small bonus for the second clerkship. Not sure. But firms usually give, what, 50k bonus for one clerkship and 70k for two? So you could negotiate the 20k? I donno.

How'd you get so many COA interviews at a T20 though? Jesus. I had trouble getting a whiff of interest from any competitive districts and circuits. Must have been really top of the "top few".

Anonymous User wrote: Basically, i'm not looking forward to going back to writing bench memos on a government salary after spending only a year at an exciting biglaw firm establishing myself and raking in the dough.

Only quoting to reiterate what many have already commented on. This is a hilarious statement. I have only district court clerked thus far, but spent 4 years in biglaw litigation. Clerking is way more "exciting" in that you at least get to see trials and interesting things. There is NOTHING exciting about biglaw (and I'm not someone that hates it, I thought it was fine, paycheck was great), and your first year is the absolute maximum of biglaw not being exciting. Even with a clerkship under your belt, the type of work you will receive that year is probably going to be excruciating at times. Also, you do very little to establish yourself in year 1 (depends on the size of the department, firm, office, I suppose). In most cases, its just not-not establishing yourself screwing up.

Not to make light of the rest, particularly fiscal and family, but don't let this shit enter your psyche.

lolwat wrote:

Martin Brody wrote:Biglaw sucks. Your careeer is long. Either you'll love biglaw and be excited to come back or you'll be thanking your lucky stars you have an out after only a year.

This is probably among the best comments in here I think.
A COA clerkship may or may not help your career depending on what you do but it almost cannot hurt.
I think that one year in biglaw you will find that it's not very exciting. There are exceptions, but... few.
Finance wise, well, at least if you're heading back to the firm after the COA clerkship you might be able to negotiate another small bonus for the second clerkship. Not sure. But firms usually give, what, 50k bonus for one clerkship and 70k for two? So you could negotiate the 20k? I donno.

How'd you get so many COA interviews at a T20 though? Jesus. I had trouble getting a whiff of interest from any competitive districts and circuits. Must have been really top of the "top few".

I agree with all of this.

Also, since you brought it up - the health insurance that the government offers is basically second to none. So, might be an interesting thing to factor into the whole settling down and having kids equation.

clerk1251 wrote:Also, since you brought it up - the health insurance that the government offers is basically second to none. So, might be an interesting thing to factor into the whole settling down and having kids equation.

No. Just no. It's better than biglaw (and likely most law firms generally) but substantially worse/more expensive than what is offered by F500 companies.

MrT wrote:

clerk1251 wrote: No. Just no. It's better than biglaw (and likely most law firms generally) but substantially worse/more expensive than what is offered by F500 companies.

I can confirm that fed insurance is good but not great (employee contributions are higher than I'd like in order to describe it as great, no real complaint on benefits though). But I'm surprised to hear biglaw insurance isn't better. I thought you'd get fancy concierge doctors and stuff like that.

Echoing what many others have said in here: biglaw is not usually "exciting" and you may enjoying clerking again once you've been in biglaw for a year. I had gaps years in biglaw prior to both my clerkships; at the end of each clerkship, I was itching to get back into practice, but after a few months in practice I was ready to clerk again. It happens.

Feel free to PM if you'd like.

You already signed up now so you gotta do it. If it was anything other than a clerkship I would've recommended you just call and withdraw from the job but you can't do that with clerkships. Don't worry though. Like people said, you'll likely get bored and annoyed by firm life about 6 to 8 months in and will wanna leave, and the clerkship will look better for you. Plus, it's good experience.

With respect to the prestige, try meditating. Sometimes we get caught up in the future that we forget about the present. Everything seems to be about building the resume, the next job, and so on. Years later you realize you did a lot of shit you didn't wanna do to please people you don't even know. So meditate. Get back to the present. Realize it's your life, and it's not some chore you gotta finish by checking off the boxes. Of course this is within reason; if you gotta do that firm life to pay the loans, do it. But you know what I'm sayin

Yeah. As others have said. I don't really fault you for this anxiety. You're just seriously misguided/naive about your experience at a large firm. I'm not saying it's impossible for you to have an exciting career there. But for you to anticipate that the next year is going to be better than the last (or the one after it), and that it will be "exciting" or any of the other glowing adjectives you've used to describe it, runs contrary to every realistic expectation and the vast majority of lived experiences. I think in about eight or nine months--six months into your biglaw dream--you'll be pining for your next clerkship and so thankful that you gave yourself such a wonderful out.

also, congrats on having such supportive profs. that's really great. I wish all schools were like that for their students.

anon sequitur wrote:

MrT wrote:

clerk1251 wrote: No. Just no. It's better than biglaw (and likely most law firms generally) but substantially worse/more expensive than what is offered by F500 companies.

I can confirm that fed insurance is good but not great (employee contributions are higher than I'd like in order to describe it as great, no real complaint on benefits though). But I'm surprised to hear biglaw insurance isn't better. I thought you'd get fancy concierge doctors and stuff like that.

Biglaw healthcare is about as bad as it gets unless you are a partner.

Having worked at F500 companies prior to law school, biglaw after law school, and now Federal Govt, I can say without a doubt that I currently have the best healthcare options I've ever had. I spent a great deal of time combing through which insurance plans were the best value though, as there are tons to choose from. Perhaps there are better companies out there with better coverage, but this is as good as you are going to get as an early state attorney, for awhile.

clerk1251 wrote:

anon sequitur wrote:

MrT wrote:

clerk1251 wrote: No. Just no. It's better than biglaw (and likely most law firms generally) but substantially worse/more expensive than what is offered by F500 companies.

I can confirm that fed insurance is good but not great (employee contributions are higher than I'd like in order to describe it as great, no real complaint on benefits though). But I'm surprised to hear biglaw insurance isn't better. I thought you'd get fancy concierge doctors and stuff like that.

Biglaw healthcare is about as bad as it gets unless you are a partner.

Having worked at F500 companies prior to law school, biglaw after law school, and now Federal Govt, I can say without a doubt that I currently have the best healthcare options I've ever had. I spent a great deal of time combing through which insurance plans were the best value though, as there are tons to choose from. Perhaps there are better companies out there with better coverage, but this is as good as you are going to get as an early state attorney, for awhile.

Good point. To be fair, I was only speaking to benefits as a term clerk. Other government gigs such as SEC or OCC have incredible benefits.

Only read the op so apologies if this is redundant, but this is the best scenario possible--clerk -> big law + bonus -> clerk -> switch big law firm + bonus. Only downside is your last firm will expect you to know how to do a bunch of things, but just chill for another year, collect bonus then -> biggov. If you rock biggov you'll have your pick of firms to return to as a partner.

But yeah, if you're worried about missing that sweet big law associate life - don't.