When do I tell my firm about a clerkship? Forum
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Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about clerkship applications and clerkship hiring. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
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Anonymous User
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When do I tell my firm about a clerkship?
I just accepted a COA clerkship for 2022. I'm starting at a V5 firm this Fall, but I'm not sure when to let my firm know. I know that advance notice is required, but I don't want people to pin me as a temporary part of the firm and limit what I'm staffed on.
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Anonymous User
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Re: When do I tell my firm about a clerkship?
Similar position though at a V60 in a non-NYC market where it isn’t the strong norm for people to clerk
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Anonymous User
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Re: When do I tell my firm about a clerkship?
Unless there's an exceptionally strong culture of encouraging clerkships at the firm, I'd wait to tell them (maybe 1-3 months' notice, give or take depending on your specific circumstances). Especially with major firms looking at making significant layoffs at the moment.
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Anonymous User
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Re: When do I tell my firm about a clerkship?
It may be different in NY or other markets but in DC, where a ton of associates leave to clerk, I think it can be advantageous to tell the firm before your start. Having an upcoming COA clerkship on your internal resume when selecting groups or getting staffed on matters can be very beneficial. I told my recruiting department as soon as I received an offer to clerk.
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polareagle
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Re: When do I tell my firm about a clerkship?
The formal notification (i.e., to HR, management committee, practice group leader, or whoever *needs* to get told in order to begin your firm's formal departure process--you can ask HR or a recently-departed associate about this when the time comes) only needs to happen a few weeks before you actually depart. I had to draft a resignation letter to the management committee.
When I left to clerk, I gave my teams six months' notice so the partners had time to get new associates in place and I had some time to bring those associates up to speed and move work onto their plates. Part of this was that all my teams were small and I was the only or one of only a few associates. (A benefit to this is that I had valuable knowledge about the cases and good relationships with the partners, so I was confident I wouldn't just be shunted aside the moment I told the partners.) Part of it too was that one of my matters was criminal and I really didn't want any balls to get dropped during the transition. Finally, I intentionally gave a ton of notice to make transition as smooth as possible because I anticipated returning after my clerkship and didn't want to burn any bridges.
To the extent some or all of the above doesn't apply to you, you can certainly lessen the amount of notice you give, and even a couple months would be generous and more than the norm for your teams. (I think many people will literally just give a few weeks' notice to everyone--after all, the lateral timeline is far less predictable than a clerkship.)
A lot of how they react will also be about how you message your departure. You already have your clerkship before even starting at the firm, so I would lean on that, say you can't believe how quickly time has flown, say how much you've enjoyed your experience, and say you hope to be able to return to the firm and your teams (whether or not any of this is true). I might even have suggested that I wouldn't have applied for a clerkship at this point because of how much I enjoyed the work, but federal judges hire crazy in advance, etc. etc. This framing will hopefully make the partners see the transition as positive and a pause in your time at the firm rather than you running for the hills. If they see it that way, they're far less likely to dump you into crappy assignments.
Final caveat is this is all YMMV. You'll get a sense of the partners you work with and how they react to things. You'll also get a sense of how people at the firm react to departures. Modify your plan accordingly.
When I left to clerk, I gave my teams six months' notice so the partners had time to get new associates in place and I had some time to bring those associates up to speed and move work onto their plates. Part of this was that all my teams were small and I was the only or one of only a few associates. (A benefit to this is that I had valuable knowledge about the cases and good relationships with the partners, so I was confident I wouldn't just be shunted aside the moment I told the partners.) Part of it too was that one of my matters was criminal and I really didn't want any balls to get dropped during the transition. Finally, I intentionally gave a ton of notice to make transition as smooth as possible because I anticipated returning after my clerkship and didn't want to burn any bridges.
To the extent some or all of the above doesn't apply to you, you can certainly lessen the amount of notice you give, and even a couple months would be generous and more than the norm for your teams. (I think many people will literally just give a few weeks' notice to everyone--after all, the lateral timeline is far less predictable than a clerkship.)
A lot of how they react will also be about how you message your departure. You already have your clerkship before even starting at the firm, so I would lean on that, say you can't believe how quickly time has flown, say how much you've enjoyed your experience, and say you hope to be able to return to the firm and your teams (whether or not any of this is true). I might even have suggested that I wouldn't have applied for a clerkship at this point because of how much I enjoyed the work, but federal judges hire crazy in advance, etc. etc. This framing will hopefully make the partners see the transition as positive and a pause in your time at the firm rather than you running for the hills. If they see it that way, they're far less likely to dump you into crappy assignments.
Final caveat is this is all YMMV. You'll get a sense of the partners you work with and how they react to things. You'll also get a sense of how people at the firm react to departures. Modify your plan accordingly.
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polareagle
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Re: When do I tell my firm about a clerkship?
I've seen this go both ways for friends at DC firms (including at the same DC firm). Sometimes it results in really cool assignments. Sometimes it results in them getting put on a massive MDL for their whole time there. I certainly wouldn't tell them *before* you arrive at the firm. At least give it a little time to get the lay of the land.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Thu Sep 03, 2020 6:23 pmIt may be different in NY or other markets but in DC, where a ton of associates leave to clerk, I think it can be advantageous to tell the firm before your start. Having an upcoming COA clerkship on your internal resume when selecting groups or getting staffed on matters can be very beneficial. I told my recruiting department as soon as I received an offer to clerk.
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