Asking for extension? Forum
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Anonymous Posting
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.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned."
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Anonymous User
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Asking for extension?
I am pretty sure my judge has filled most (if not all) spots for next year. However, if at all possible, I would like to stay on for a second year. I don’t know if my judge has ever given a clerk a second year, and I am a bit nervous to be asking about it only a few months into my clerkship. I think things are going well, and I don’t want to inadvertently strain the relationship with my judge by asking him for something that he’s uncomfortable doing/maybe doesn’t even have the option to do (because the spots for next year might be filled). Nonetheless, It won’t happen at all if I don’t ask. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated
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nixy
- Posts: 4478
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Re: Asking for extension?
Is there a career clerk, or do you get along with his JA or other staff attached to chambers? Can you informally check in with them about whether your judge has filled next year's slots, whether they've ever done this, or how to ask?
I have to say I think it would be very very normal for your judge to have filled slots for next year by now, but you won't know unless you ask.
My other question/suggestion is why you want to extend for a second year, only a few months in. If it's just "because covid and the economy and jobs," I totally get it, but it might seem a little early to go there at this point precisely because things are so up in the air (it's a balance of course, because you can't wait till near the end of your clerkship to inquire when the judge will definitely have hired already and so on). If there's some other concrete reason (like related to another job opportunity - you got a clerkship starting in 22 - or family/SO) I think it's a little easier to bring it up earlier.
Particularly if it's the latter, the judge may not be able to offer you a second year, but may be able to help you out with other possibilities. That's the case for job hunting generally, of course, but I feel like that's universal enough that it's not quite the same (like, all clerks will be looking for jobs to go to after, even if that's going back to a previous employer, so asking for a second year in relation to that is sort of like asking for a special favor to address a situation everyone faces; whereas if you have some kind of outside constraint, you're asking a special favor because you're in a special situation, if that makes any sense (which it might not b/c I'm seriously sleep-deprived)).
(And the above isn't meant to suggest that asking to stay for a second year is some kind of massive inappropriate reach you'd be rude to ask about - I don't think it is, at all, but it's a little out of the ordinary, so maybe a little more appropriate for a more out of the ordinary circumstance than having to find a next job. Though a global pandemic is obviously out of the ordinary, so maybe that's completely fine and I'm overthinking.)
I have to say I think it would be very very normal for your judge to have filled slots for next year by now, but you won't know unless you ask.
My other question/suggestion is why you want to extend for a second year, only a few months in. If it's just "because covid and the economy and jobs," I totally get it, but it might seem a little early to go there at this point precisely because things are so up in the air (it's a balance of course, because you can't wait till near the end of your clerkship to inquire when the judge will definitely have hired already and so on). If there's some other concrete reason (like related to another job opportunity - you got a clerkship starting in 22 - or family/SO) I think it's a little easier to bring it up earlier.
Particularly if it's the latter, the judge may not be able to offer you a second year, but may be able to help you out with other possibilities. That's the case for job hunting generally, of course, but I feel like that's universal enough that it's not quite the same (like, all clerks will be looking for jobs to go to after, even if that's going back to a previous employer, so asking for a second year in relation to that is sort of like asking for a special favor to address a situation everyone faces; whereas if you have some kind of outside constraint, you're asking a special favor because you're in a special situation, if that makes any sense (which it might not b/c I'm seriously sleep-deprived)).
(And the above isn't meant to suggest that asking to stay for a second year is some kind of massive inappropriate reach you'd be rude to ask about - I don't think it is, at all, but it's a little out of the ordinary, so maybe a little more appropriate for a more out of the ordinary circumstance than having to find a next job. Though a global pandemic is obviously out of the ordinary, so maybe that's completely fine and I'm overthinking.)
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mjb447
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Re: Asking for extension?
Yeah, I don't think there's anything inappropriate about asking, particularly if you have some especially good reason for asking, but I'd probably be prepared for a "no." (Hopefully, you've got some sense by now of [1] whether your judge is the kind of person who might take offense that you even asked and [2] how to talk to him in general.)
