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Is there any conventional wisdom regarding applying for clerkships that would start after one year of biglaw?

I'm class of 2020 and just started as a summer associate at a large firm. If given an offer I would want to return, and I would want to return after a clerkship if I get one. While working on clerkship applications for the 2020-2021 term, I discovered a judge in the same city as my firm is accepting applications for the 2021-2022 term.

Is it unusual to go to a clerkship after just one year of biglaw? How would I find out if my firm would be okay with this and if there would be any difficulty returning to the firm after the clerkship, especially considering I don't even have an offer of full-time employment yet?

Any advice on how to think through this would be much appreciated! Thanks.

This is increasingly common. If you're at a large firm where any decent number of people end up clerking, it won't be out of the ordinary at all and shouldn't be a big deal.

BlackAndOrange84 wrote:This is increasingly common. If you're at a large firm where any decent number of people end up clerking, it won't be out of the ordinary at all and shouldn't be a big deal.

Seconded. Any biglaw firm that values clerkships will be totally fine with it. You don't need to tell them that you're applying, nor do you really need to tell them if you get a clerkship before you get an offer, but there is no real reason not to (they aren't going to no-offer you because you are going to clerk after a year, but I guess waiting for the offer before telling the firm is the safest bet).

I'm doing this right now. I'm a 2017 graduate who got my clerkship just before my summer associateship after 2L, spent my first year after graduation at the firm, and am now finishing up the clerkship and getting ready to go back. As long as they value clerkships they won't care and they may actually secretly like it, because they don't have to pay you for a year when you're not yet profitable. There's no reason to tell them that your'e applying, but if there are people at the firm who have clerked for judges you're applying to you should absolutely seek them out. Lots of people get clerkships because an ex-clerk called the judge and got their application pulled out of the pile.