I wanted to start this thread to see if anyone knew specifics about the post-clerkship job process. I have a BL job lined up after graduation but am interested in district court clerkship which would conflict with that job. How likely is it that the firm will want to hire me back afterwards? Is the market particularly bad right now? How does the process work when looking for a post-clerkship job?
Just want to know if it would be a horrible mistake to take it (if I get it) or if it's not a huge deal. Thanks!
Finding Work After Clerkship Forum
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namefromplace
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Re: Finding Work After Clerkship
To clarify here: you're looking at applying for a district court clerkship to start Fall 2021 and wondering how to talk to your law firm about it if you're given an offer to clerk? Note that most Fall 2021 hiring is done now, but if you have a lead, good for you.
The firm's reaction depends on a lot of things. In general, I think a lot of firms now are happy to have someone they can defer starting until we're more likely to be out of the recession. Depending on your judge, you could accept and then clerk, have them leave your offer open, or turn down the offer and look for work after you clerk. If you have to turn down the offer from the firm, your employability depends a lot on how the market will be when you start looking (which could be a lot better than now, but might not be), where your clerkship is geographically, who you're clerking with, and what credentials you had going into the clerkship. You likely would have a good shot at getting a job, but there's also a chance you couldn't--it's a risk.
However, things are a bit more complicated if you've already accepted an offer from your firm to start working there next year. If that's the case and you accept an offer to clerk, I would think most firms would be understanding, but I could see some firms would be a bit miffed that you're essentially reneging an offer from them, and that bridge may be burned.
The firm's reaction depends on a lot of things. In general, I think a lot of firms now are happy to have someone they can defer starting until we're more likely to be out of the recession. Depending on your judge, you could accept and then clerk, have them leave your offer open, or turn down the offer and look for work after you clerk. If you have to turn down the offer from the firm, your employability depends a lot on how the market will be when you start looking (which could be a lot better than now, but might not be), where your clerkship is geographically, who you're clerking with, and what credentials you had going into the clerkship. You likely would have a good shot at getting a job, but there's also a chance you couldn't--it's a risk.
However, things are a bit more complicated if you've already accepted an offer from your firm to start working there next year. If that's the case and you accept an offer to clerk, I would think most firms would be understanding, but I could see some firms would be a bit miffed that you're essentially reneging an offer from them, and that bridge may be burned.
