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Rising 3L currently summering in the lit group at a DC ~V50. I've secured a 2025 term d. ct. clerkship in the area. Have been having a not terribly fantastic SA so far and am potentially interested starting out post-grad in the lit group at a different BL firm, leveraging my clerkship. I know that this situation presents a bit of a double-edged sword to firms: a candidate with the credential of a clerkship down the line, but with the knowledge that I will leave the firm after 1 year and may not come back. Throw in current market conditions and I'm wondering if 3L recruiting is worth pursuing, or if I should just work through the gap year and try post-clerkship?

If now is worth a shot, are there any firms in DC known to be amenable to 3L hiring, direct or otherwise (only Quinn is coming to my school and we all know that they have a certain reputation)?

If this is something for later, is post-clerkship hiring really as doom-and-gloom as it appears on that TLS thread? I'm not interested in appellate, would be happy working on lit and govt investigations matters, and have secured a clerkship in a highly competitive district relevant to BL DC practices (not a flyover).

I don't think post-clerkship hiring is quite as doom and gloom as the TLS threads suggest, mainly b/c there's a lot more incentive to come here and post about it if you're struggling and want support than if you got a job no problem and are sailing along. One problem with post-clerkship hiring is that it's not as standardized as OCI, but people often expect to get a job offer early and easily (I think sort of conditioned by OCI), and panic when they don't. (Not saying that's unreasonable, I totally get worrying). Many people won't get jobs until what feels like very late in the clerkship; also, sometimes people who are not great candidates for national biglaw jobs get clerkships (for a whole variety of possible reasons) and are then frustrated (again, understandably) when a biglaw job is still hard to get.

I haven't been in your shoes, but I don't see any reason not to throw your hat into the 3L hiring ring - what have you got to lose? I've never seen any evidence that this will lose you the offer you will doubtless get from your current firm - with continuing at your current firm as a backup. Assuming that your firm likes people to clerk and doesn't suffer some massive financial crisis between now and then, they can also be a backup for your job search while clerking. Even if post-clerkship hiring is tougher than you expect, presumably you can stick with the current firm and be no worse off than you are now, and continue to apply elsewhere.