EMERGENCY: Fed Trial Court or Court of Appeals Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hey everyone,

2019 T14 grad, above median grades.

I have my heart sat on big-law in the future, but don't have anything set up for this fall. Instead, I'm going to continue working in my non-law job while applying to clerkships.

My question is simple; do Federal Trial Court clerkships (just generic ones, not SDNY) carry the same benefits (bonuses, prestige, notoriety) as COA clerkships? Or are they more akin to state court clerkships.

Please let me know and please try to keep commentary within the bounds of this question.

[Anonymous User]

I’m pretty sure all big firms will offer the same bonus for any federal clerkship, whether it’s district or appellate. There are varying levels of prestige. Generally, I think federal appellate is seen as more prestigious, but say you want to practice in Boston and you’re looking at D. Mass. or Tenth Circuit in New Mexico, then the district court might carry more weight.

I think any federal court clerkship is prestigious. I know my firm offers the same bonus for a federal clerkship or a state Supreme Court (or state highest court) clerkship, but not lower state court, so definitely trumps lower state court clerkships. But really, the more important things should be 1. What you want to do, 2. Where you want to practice, and 3. If you’re looking for 2019, there might not be time or opportunity to be quite as picky or prestige focused.

[Wild Card]

do Federal Trial Court clerkships (just generic ones, not SDNY) carry the same benefits (bonuses, prestige, notoriety) as COA clerkships?

No. The presumption is that generic COA clerkships are still considerably more selective than generic district court clerkships. We equate selectivity with prestige, so generic COA is considerably more prestigious than generic district court.

Or are they more akin to state court clerkships.

No. Generic district court clerkships are far-far-far more selective than generic state court clerkships. So generic district court is far-far-far more prestigious than generic state court.

[nixy]

Why is this an emergency? Do you have a district court clerkship offer pending? COA is more prestigious, generally, than district court, and district court is more prestigious, generally, than state Supreme Court clerkships, but really any of them are likely more helpful for getting into biglaw than a non-law job is.

[mjb447]

+1 to everything said so far. Leaving aside what you'll actually learn in each clerkship, the rough hierarchy is COA > D Ct > State ct.

[QContinuum]

Why is this an emergency? Do you have a district court clerkship offer pending? COA is more prestigious, generally, than district court, and district court is more prestigious, generally, than state Supreme Court clerkships, but really any of them are likely more helpful for getting into biglaw than a non-law job is.

I would also add that absent some serious personal connections to a particular COA judge, OP's chances at landing COA directly are exceedingly slim, given "above median" (so presumably not top quarter, let alone top 10%) grades, T14 (so presumably lower T14, not T6), and (most especially) the non-law post-J.D. job. I suggest that if OP has a District Court clerkship offer pending that they jump on it with all haste.

[justanotherlurker]

You may already know this, but just in case:
With some limited exceptions (like newly-appointed judges; clerks who withdraw at the last minute), most federal judges hire 1.5 or more years in advance. There are probably very, very few clerkship openings to start this fall.
So, if you start applying to clerkships today, you'd be applying to clerkships to start in the fall of 2020 or, possibly, 2021.

Given that, you may want to consider finding a law job to fill any time between now and the start of the clerkship. I don't know that a judge (or a law firm) would be thrilled with someone who graduated from law school and then didn't do anything law related for a year or more.

I think you would have better luck focusing on finding a biglaw job from a firm that is unexpectedly busy and had lower-than-expected yield from summer associates starting as first-years in the fall.

[Yehar]

Why is this an emergency? Do you have a district court clerkship offer pending? COA is more prestigious, generally, than district court, and district court is more prestigious, generally, than state Supreme Court clerkships, but really any of them are likely more helpful for getting into biglaw than a non-law job is.

Going to echo this. Further, you may be better off trying to work for a magistrate judge instead of a non-law job. A slew of questions arise when you are working a non-law job after graduation, both in the mind of a judge and big law employer, particularly as biglaw relies on their assembly line for a bulky part of its hires.

[SomeElleWoodsJoke]

You may already know this, but just in case:
With some limited exceptions (like newly-appointed judges; clerks who withdraw at the last minute), most federal judges hire 1.5 or more years in advance. There are probably very, very few clerkship openings to start this fall.
So, if you start applying to clerkships today, you'd be applying to clerkships to start in the fall of 2020 or, possibly, 2021.

Given that, you may want to consider finding a law job to fill any time between now and the start of the clerkship. I don't know that a judge (or a law firm) would be thrilled with someone who graduated from law school and then didn't do anything law related for a year or more.

I think you would have better luck focusing on finding a biglaw job from a firm that is unexpectedly busy and had lower-than-expected yield from summer associates starting as first-years in the fall.

Second this, a non-law gap will hurt your ability to get a clerkship going forward. Please go look at new big law entries into Texas (Houston in particular). Several are well-known to be on a hiring spree.

And, without trying to get too off-topic here, the hierarchy of "prestige" based on clerkship type is.. very well known information. Have you worked with your school's clerkship office (if you have one) or spoken to any of your professor recommenders? I'd advise you to go talk to them. They can even answer this particular question with more granularity for your goals.