What to do in the gap year before clerkship, in public interest sphere? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working as an associate at a large firm where I pretty much dread working every day. For background, I thought I would gain strong, useful litigation skills from this position, but my interests and experience before this have been in public interest work, and while I thought the litigation aspect would be a nice complement to those, it’s turning out to not be my cup of tea after a year in this job. My question thus is this — I have an appellate clerkship lined up for a year from now, and am wondering if I should just stick out this job I largely dislike until then, or try to pursue a position that is more appealing to me until the clerkship begins.

Of course, given the fact I’m starting a clerkship in a year, I’m not sure I’m very attractive to many prospective employers. Have any of you gone through something similar, in which you were applying for jobs or other positions knowing you’d have to leave for your clerkship, and was there any way to handle that when applying for jobs? I know this can be pretty standard for law firms, but I’m not as sure as to how a public interest or government or other type of employer might see someone who is interested in the position but has a year-long commitment in a year. I suppose a fellowship of some sort may make sense, but as I'm a couple years out of law school, I do not know if I'm able to secure one at this stage (they often have particular application timelines). I am lucky and grateful to have the job I do now, and there may be some good reasons to stay in it, but it's not what I want nor plan to do longer-term, and is not helping my mental health.

Thanks!

[Anonymous User]

Anon b/c I'm in government. First of all, let me say that I haven't tried this, so I'm mostly spitballing. But I think unless you can find a one-year term position (like a fellowship or similar), most government/public interest employers would not be very interested in someone who would only be there for a year. Many don't have the kind of planned attrition and hiring cycles seen in biglaw, they probably can't keep a spot open for someone to come back after they clerk, and they need someone to fill the position. There may be some offices that are big enough to hire regularly and that have enough turnover that you could fly under the radar, but I think it would be hard to find. I'm sorry to be discouraging, and I don't want my one comment to stop you from exploring possibilities, but a year is really such a short time.

[Anonymous User]

Not exactly what you're looking for, but maybe the perspective will help. I'm in biglaw and will be leaving to clerk. I'm learning toward not returning to biglaw after. One nice thing about knowing you're leaving soonish is that you don't have to really worry about hours or hunting down work. Feels more relaxed and you're getting paid a ton.