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I just started a CoA clerkship and will be targeting the NYC market post-clerkship. Not super interested in standard biglaw firms.

Clerkship is not flyover, but also not in a major metro. (Think about 45 minutes from a major city). I previously clerked on the district court in a SDNY/EDNY/NDCA/CDCA/EDVA type district.

HYSCCN grad with roughly top 5% grades.

I've been out of the firm recruiting game for a while now, and it seems like there's been some change in the NYC market with new boutiques and stuff, so just though I'd get some thoughts here on what's realistic and what I should be going for. Would like a firm I could potentially stay at for a career, and also one that will allow me to jump to government.

I would start making a list of NYC boutiques by looking at the Chambers list for NYC White Collar (make sure you look at the list of individuals as well as firms). It’s not comprehensive but it has a lot of boutiques on there that would make anyone’s list of boutiques to be targeting. I don’t know how all of them hire but I know a number of them hire post-clerkship. You can probably get a better sense by checking out associate bios on their websites.

The caveat to this is that if you are looking at smaller boutiques, they might not be a place to stay for a whole career.

Mololamken; holwell shuster; susman Godfrey; Selendy & gay; wachtell (if you wanna be an AUSA); Boies Schiller; Morvillo; Wilkinson Walsh (FYI, they have no true NYC presence. when I looked, there were only 1-3 associates in the NYC office and one counsel/partner); Kaplan Hecker & Fink.

Anon because I was in a similar boat as you and this is where I looked when looking at NYC. All will give you strong options to go into govt/do something else. Some are more career places than others. All will work you hard.