Leaving clerkship early? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone have any experience or has anyone heard about how to initiate leaving a clerkship early? Ideally, without burning a bridge (or, minimizing that risk to the extent possible).

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone have any experience or has anyone heard about how to initiate leaving a clerkship early? Ideally, without burning a bridge (or, minimizing that risk to the extent possible).

Much of this would, of course, depend on the circumstances of the departure. If a clerk had to leave because of some unexpected family obligations that is very different than if the clerk wanted to quit because he just didn't like the judge, etc.

The people I've heard of leaving clerkships early have typically fallen into the latter category, but they all had jobs lined up that they could go back to.

[Anonymous User]

Interested in this as well. More in the category of disliking the work environment, feeling unwelcome/constantly criticized by the judge, etc., with mental health suffering as a result. Also, this isn’t a one year clerkship, so would think about starting a conversation about leaving after 1 year. Are there angles that have worked for others approaching this sort of situation?

[Anonymous User]

Interested in this as well. More in the category of disliking the work environment, feeling unwelcome/constantly criticized by the judge, etc., with mental health suffering as a result. Also, this isn’t a one year clerkship, so would think about starting a conversation about leaving after 1 year. Are there angles that have worked for others approaching this sort of situation?

It would be ideal if you could line up employment around the exact one-year mark, so your judge could replace you on the regular clerkship application schedule. So if you started August 2021, you can say judge I've gotten a job offer starting August 2022 I cannot refuse, I hope I can help you find a replacement for me. And so on.

[Anonymous User]

Interested in this as well. More in the category of disliking the work environment, feeling unwelcome/constantly criticized by the judge, etc., with mental health suffering as a result. Also, this isn’t a one year clerkship, so would think about starting a conversation about leaving after 1 year. Are there angles that have worked for others approaching this sort of situation?

Don't have any experience or advice on this, but just wanted to let you know that you're not alone. I feel the exact same way in my clerkship. It ends in August and I am counting down the days until I get out of this miserable job. I wish more people would talk about how toxic clerkship work environments can be. Whenever anyone asks me how my clerkship is going I am filled with shame and don't know what to say.

Just trying to remind myself that I will get through this and won't ever have to work in an environment like this again in a few months.

[Anonymous User]

That’s helpful to hear, hope that you can get through this last stretch. I’d love for my clerkship to end after one year, not sure how I’d be able to make it through a full two years of this. Has anyone used financial necessity as a reason to cut the term short, and how did that go?

[Anonymous User]

That’s helpful to hear, hope that you can get through this last stretch. I’d love for my clerkship to end after one year, not sure how I’d be able to make it through a full two years of this. Has anyone used financial necessity as a reason to cut the term short, and how did that go?

Interested in this as well. More in the category of disliking the work environment, feeling unwelcome/constantly criticized by the judge, etc., with mental health suffering as a result. Also, this isn’t a one year clerkship, so would think about starting a conversation about leaving after 1 year. Are there angles that have worked for others approaching this sort of situation?

Don't have any experience or advice on this, but just wanted to let you know that you're not alone. I feel the exact same way in my clerkship. It ends in August and I am counting down the days until I get out of this miserable job. I wish more people would talk about how toxic clerkship work environments can be. Whenever anyone asks me how my clerkship is going I am filled with shame and don't know what to say.

Just trying to remind myself that I will get through this and won't ever have to work in an environment like this again in a few months.

[Anonymous User]

I wouldn’t use financial necessity as a reason since you signed up for 2 years knowing what the salary was going to be. Exception would be if your expenses have changed significantly for reasons outside your control (spouse lost job, sick parent or kid, maybe that you had a kid although there might be a presumption that you could have planned that too), in which case it would probably be a decent reason. Just not something like “I bought a house/car” or “everything costs more than I expected” or “this other job opportunity makes a lot more money.”

Better reasons would be a job opportunity you can’t pass up (like a employer can’t keep the position open for another year), a spouse/partner who has to move to another city, or (though obviously this is risky) if you think the judge is as unhappy with you as you are with them, just be forthright and say that you’re not sure the situation is working out and you want to give the judge an opportunity to make a change since it seems like that’s what they’d prefer. Again, the latter is risky and depends on the judge’s temperament and how you spin it, but if you’re certain you want to leave regardless of how the judge responds, it might be worth a shot.

[Anonymous User]

I had a co-clerk leave in the middle of a 2 year clerkship; they got an offer from a firm they could not turn down. They treated it like any other job—gave notice, worked out a schedule for leaving that didn’t put everyone in a bind, and helped out with seeking a replacement. I think as long as you do it professionally, the judge will be inclined to treat you professionally. Your judge has presumably had some work experience prior to being a judge where people have come and gone; it’s what happens. While clerking isn’t a run-of-the-mill job, at the end of the day, it is just a job.

This will color their impression of you, and you may be off the Christmas card list, but they likely won’t go actively seeking to ruin your career. If you can time your leaving with the hiring cycle, I think that’s even better.

I’d also add this person was looking to do non-lit work, which helped out with their messaging (“I can’t pass this job up; my interests have changed and it’s what I really want to do; this has been great but I don’t think it’s progressing my development in that practice area”). The firm was also hesitant to hire someone jumping ship early on a clerkship, and while it helped that it was a non-lit group making the hire, it still had to be cleared by the lit group, so that’s another thing to keep in mind.