Is anyone burnt out? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Current district court clerk with an upcoming circuit clerkship. I'm in a busy district and clerking on a busy circuit court and I am already kind of burnt out. I like the work, but it feels never ending. I've only been doing this for 8 months, so a little worried about the circuit clerkship and law practice more generally.

[Anonymous User]

Circuit court clerkships are generally less busy. Even in a busy circuit, the volume is way less than a district court clerkship. Think about it: not all cases get appealed, and of those that do, each opinion is generated by a three-judge panel or en banc, and typically only one judge writes the opinion unless there is a reason to concur/dissent. So the only way a circuit court clerkship could possibly be as much work as a district court clerkship is if your judge requires really long and detailed bench memos or has some other strange requirement or practice.

[Anonymous User]

I’m not burnt out with the job (flyover district), but I’m burnt out with the job hunt. COA rejections sting because I’ve got this silly notion that I’m qualified—in reality, it was a miracle to get this job. I suppose it’ll all work out how it’s supposed to.

I agree with the other poster. From what I hear, your COA clerkship should be more humane. You won’t feel like you’re plugging holes into a dam that’s breaking, unlike the district court.

[Anonymous User]

Extremely burnt out, and my district court clerkship isn't even that intense. It's just repetitive.

[Anonymous User]

There's a lot of work, my judge expects me to do all of it, and I just don't care.

The parties' incoherent motion papers makes it seem as if they don't care. So why should I?

Why should I have to do all the work for them?

[Anonymous User]

There's a lot of work, my judge expects me to do all of it, and I just don't care.

The parties' incoherent motion papers makes it seem as if they don't care. So why should I?

Why should I have to do all the work for them?

If you do a bad job, then on appeal your opinions may get reversed. That would be embarrassing for your judge and make you look bad. Even though you will have left the clerkship by then, your judge will think, "Oh yeah... [your name] must have done a shitty job on that opinion." That's some motivation.

[Anonymous User]

There's a lot of work, my judge expects me to do all of it, and I just don't care.

The parties' incoherent motion papers makes it seem as if they don't care. So why should I?

Why should I have to do all the work for them?

If you do a bad job, then on appeal your opinions may get reversed. That would be embarrassing for your judge and make you look bad. Even though you will have left the clerkship by then, your judge will think, "Oh yeah... [your name] must have done a shitty job on that opinion." That's some motivation.

Counterpoint from another anon: Who cares?

[lavarman84]

There's a lot of work, my judge expects me to do all of it, and I just don't care.

The parties' incoherent motion papers makes it seem as if they don't care. So why should I?

Why should I have to do all the work for them?

That's the job you signed up for.

[Anonymous User]

There's a lot of work, my judge expects me to do all of it, and I just don't care.

The parties' incoherent motion papers makes it seem as if they don't care. So why should I?

Why should I have to do all the work for them?

I find the shitty lawyering cases to be the most challenging to get motivated for, but I guess it’s not the parties’ fault they can only afford shitty lawyers.

[Anonymous User]

If you do a really shitty job then you might get fired. Getting fired from a clerkship could have a number of negative consequences for your financial situation and professional life moving forward.

Did you not anticipate bad lawyering before the clerkship? Why did you even want a clerkship in the first place?

[Anonymous User]

There's a lot of work, my judge expects me to do all of it, and I just don't care.

The parties' incoherent motion papers makes it seem as if they don't care. So why should I?

Why should I have to do all the work for them?

If you do a bad job, then on appeal your opinions may get reversed. That would be embarrassing for your judge and make you look bad. Even though you will have left the clerkship by then, your judge will think, "Oh yeah... [your name] must have done a shitty job on that opinion." That's some motivation.

Counterpoint from another anon: Who cares?

Aside from the getting fired part, another reason to care is the judge will be a reference for your first job and likely future jobs. The clerk for whom I took over drafted an opinion that was reversed, and while the judge doesn't hate him for it, you definitely get the feeling that the recommendation for his next job won't be as glowing. Judges don't have much to worry about since impeachment is pretty much non-existent, so getting overturned is the one thing they absolutely care about and the one thing that may impact soft factors like recommendations in the future.

To OP: if you are getting burnt out, consider talking to the judge, other judges, or other clerks. Might be harder if you are fully remote, but some of the best coping mechanisms I found while clerking was chatting with other judges and clerks.

[nixy]

There's a lot of work, my judge expects me to do all of it, and I just don't care.

The parties' incoherent motion papers makes it seem as if they don't care. So why should I?

Why should I have to do all the work for them?

I find the shitty lawyering cases to be the most challenging to get motivated for, but I guess it’s not the parties’ fault they can only afford shitty lawyers.

I think one of the issues is that if you ended up clerking, you’ve been around completely unrepresentatively smart law students and profs and so on and developed an unrealistic expectation of the legal standard in the real world. Most lawyers are shitty.

Whenever judges would come to my school to judge moot court and such, they’d always say something to the students like “if only the attorneys who appear before me were as prepared and smart as you,” and I always thought this was hyperbole until I clerked and realized, no, that’s absolutely correct.

[nixy]

(Also, I’m going to put on my crotchety old/pretentious person hat and say I think partly this is the result of clerking being seen as such a brass ring for careers. I totally get why people clerk for perfectly instrumental reasons, to advance their careers, but I think it can also result in a lot of people clerking who don’t actually really like the work, they’re just doing it because they think they should, so of course they don’t care about it.)