State Supreme Court to Federal District/COA? Forum

[Bonk]

I've accepted an offer to clerk for a Justice in a State Supreme Court, how hard is it to go to a federal clerkship afterwards? If anyone has had experience going from a state supreme court clerkship to a federal district or COA clerkship would love to hear your insight.

[crazywafflez]

I didn't personally do that, but I have two friends who did. They both went to fed district court though and their Justice was friendly with that judge (same judge and same justice). I've certainly heard of more people though making this move.

[Anonymous User]

I went from state supreme court to federal court of appeals. Wouldn't have gotten the federal court of appeals without the state supreme court clerkship.

Very happy I did both, I got the prestige of the federal circuit and I stand out more in interviews for also having the state supreme court clerkship, which is a common topic of conversation/sell and helped me pitch myself very well when trying to get into appellate groups/boutiques. Of course there's no way to know for sure but I suspect I only ended up in the group I did because I did both (when checking references they even only talked to my Justice and not my circuit judge).

Edit: to the extent it matters, the SSC and COA were both out of state/circuit of where I am now practicing.

[Bonk]

Thanks for the information! Very helpful. To provide some more context, hopefully without doxxing myself, I will be clerking for 3 years as of now. I'm currently in my 1st year of a state trial court clerkship, in fall I'll start at the highest trial court in my state for my 2nd year, and then fall of 2026 I'll start my 3rd year clerkship with the state supreme court. I've gotten conflicting advice in terms of whether it's worth applying to COA or Fed District for a year after the state supreme court clerkship. Some people have said it's not worth it because employers won't want to hire someone that far out of law school that has only clerked. Alternatively I've heard from others that as long as you're moving up to a "higher/more prestigious court" that's fine, but you might have to take a stub year or start a class year or two below your graduation year. I don't mind taking a stub year or starting a class year or two lower, no student loans, and I'm relatively young, so don't have all that many life expenses, or life creep yet. My goal after the clerkships at this time is to either go to a State AG's office, the federal government (if that still exists in 2027/2028), or private practice (Either Big Law or a Plaintiff side firm think Cohen Milstein, Labaton Keller Sucharow, etc.)

[Anonymous User]

Reasonably common, though the SSC clerkship may not move the needle a ton if (1) you wouldn't otherwise be that competitive for an AIII clerkship and (2) your justice does not have a personal relationship with the federal judge.

[Anonymous User]

I think the answer changes for District Court (USDC) vs Federal Circuit Court (COA). I am doing SSC->COA.

For COA, given that you started out at a trial-level clerkship (I assume not Del. Chancery), it sounds like this would be a big "get" for you; I think a COA clerkship is seldom a bad idea. But if clerking for three years, be prepared to take a class cut. Most firms have a cap on clerkship credit at two years, and most Big Law firms won't count a state trial court for class credit anyway. I know my firm gives class credit for SSC, but I do not know if that's common.

For USDC, it depends on if you just want to keep clerking, if the district court is target vs flyover, if the SSC was unusually prestigious (e.g., CA, NJ, DE, some others I'm sure), and whether the firms you'd be targeting practice in both federal and state court or predominantly just one. Again, be prepared to take class credit, and I think USDC may not always be worth it. Really just personal preference and depends on prestige levels or local importance of the courts you're in.

For context, I got my SSC clerkship and was back and forth over whether to apply for USDC. I basically won the lottery w/ the COA clerkship (non-T14) so I never ended up deciding. But the above is what I was considering. FWIW, I was told SSC (especially a good SSC) moves the needle on USDC. Made me competitive for target districts instead of just flyovers. Less so a needle-mover for COA, usually, but obviously such as in my situation it can be.