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Are there any career benefits for a transactional attorney (bankruptcy/real estate, not sure if specific practice group matters) to do a clerkship either before they start working full-time at a big law firm or sometime after a couple of years of working? Do people who do clerkships later primarily do this to switch to litigation or to take a break from big law? I have met a few really impressive transactional attorneys later who have clerked so I'm curious if there are more than intangible benefits which come from clerking.

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Not by choice, I am going to a lit. group this summer (at a firm with no possibility of doing a transactional practice) when I really want to be in a transactional practice. I heard that a clerkship may be a decent way to switch, like summer in lit, then clerk and work my tail off to change firms/groups. Don't know if this is actually possible though, but it has been suggested to me by several people.

Clerking is the perfect way to try and change firms, especially to just get out of your SA firm. But it's value is definitely a lot smaller to transactional practices (I know of a few V25 firms who will try to not even give clerkship bonus if you are going into transactional groups).

To OP: I probably wouldn't bother clerking, unless you want to go into bankruptcy and can clerk in bankruptcy in DE/SDNY.

To cam1992: clerking's not a great way to move into transactional practice, but I would try applying to DE chancery/Supreme. A lot of former clerks from there go into transactional work given the unique subject matter they work with.

Try clerking at the Chancery Court in Delaware. I know a few corporate associates that did that.

One of my co-clerks (federal appellate) went into corporate at a V10 after we clerked. Unlike me (who went to the same firm, but in lit), he didn't get a year of class credit for clerking. So other than the $50k bonus, he came in just like any other hire who had graduated a few months ago and just taken the bar. And as another poster mentioned, some firms might not even want to pay the bonus either. Something to keep in mind.

Anonymous User wrote:One of my co-clerks (federal appellate) went into corporate at a V10 after we clerked. Unlike me (who went to the same firm, but in lit), he didn't get a year of class credit for clerking. So other than the $50k bonus, he came in just like any other hire who had graduated a few months ago and just taken the bar. And as another poster mentioned, some firms might not even want to pay the bonus either. Something to keep in mind.

I think losing a class year is worse than no bonus, assuming you stay in for a few years.

It's absolutely not worth it for general Corporate/M&A. Clerking on Delaware chancery won't help either.

I have no idea if it has value for bankruptcy but my firm doesn't give class credit for bankruptcy lawyers who did bankruptcy clerkships (or for clerks who go into transactional).

Mullens wrote:It's absolutely not worth it for general Corporate/M&A. Clerking on Delaware chancery won't help either.

I wouldn't clerk on chancery just for the sake of clerking, but I think it's justifiable as a means of switching firms. As a current DE SSC/Chancery clerk I can say that a lot of firms seem to be putting a decent amount of effort into recruiting from here into their transactional groups. As an example, last week at Kirkland's Wilmington dinner for SSC/Chancery the majority of Kirkland attorneys were from transactional groups.