Question about a district court clerkship after appellate Forum

[Anonymous User]

Want to gauge advice on here for something. I am about to return to my biglaw firm I summered at after clerking in a federal appellate court (and working there for a year). So I would return as a third year. I always thought people just clerk once, but having been exposed to other appellate clerks it feels like everyone is doing a district court clerkship sometime in the future (or in the past). I pulled up Oscar and all the districts I would want to clerk for seem to be hiring in 2026, 2027, or 2028. I would like to be competitve for DOJ jobs in the future when there is a different administration, but also don't want to screw myself and cut off momentum I would have at a biglaw firm. Should I try to apply to SDNY/EDNY/DDC or should i just call it and be happy with my appellate clerkship. I am otherwise a pretty good candidate on paper with magna cum laude at a T14, but I would hate to signicantly disadvantage myself against other T14 magnas that have an SDNY clerkship also.

[Anonymous User]

You seem to chase prestige for the sake of it…define what you want to do first before chasing after an SDNY clerkship.

[Anonymous User]

You seem to chase prestige for the sake of it…define what you want to do first before chasing after an SDNY clerkship.

Fair although I'm wondering to what extent that prestige (if there is one) is going to matter in my career. If not, I won't do it.

[Anonymous User]

I don’t think doing a district court clerkship *on top* of appellate is necessary for DOJ. I don’t think it’s ever going to hurt, but I’ve come across more people who’ve clerked once than twice. I think the further along you are when you make the jump, the more your hire will be about your experience, what people can say about you, and how well you can articulate what you bring to the job/your commitment to the mission.

I don’t think you’re going to disadvantage yourself against other T14 magnas with two clerkships, because I think any hiring decision is going to be more holistic than that. If you and another candidate were absolutely equal in every other way and that was the only distinguishing factor, maybe, but that’s almost never going to be the case.

Also, if you’re magna at a T14 and have done a COA, no one is going to think you weren’t smart enough or qualified enough to get a district court clerkship.

Finally, at a certain point, optimizing your experience for some future possible goal over what you actually want to be doing now isn’t worth it. If you wanted to clerk a second time, I’d tell you to go for it, but it’s absolutely defensible not to.

As to why you ran across so many double clerks - some people are really into clerking for the experience and want to work for two different kinds of courts. Some people may have ended up lining up two clerkships during one application season. Some people congenitally can’t pass up any chance to collect what they perceive as a brass ring.

[Anonymous User]

I don’t think doing a district court clerkship *on top* of appellate is necessary for DOJ. I don’t think it’s ever going to hurt, but I’ve come across more people who’ve clerked once than twice. I think the further along you are when you make the jump, the more your hire will be about your experience, what people can say about you, and how well you can articulate what you bring to the job/your commitment to the mission.

I don’t think you’re going to disadvantage yourself against other T14 magnas with two clerkships, because I think any hiring decision is going to be more holistic than that. If you and another candidate were absolutely equal in every other way and that was the only distinguishing factor, maybe, but that’s almost never going to be the case.

Also, if you’re magna at a T14 and have done a COA, no one is going to think you weren’t smart enough or qualified enough to get a district court clerkship.

Finally, at a certain point, optimizing your experience for some future possible goal over what you actually want to be doing now isn’t worth it. If you wanted to clerk a second time, I’d tell you to go for it, but it’s absolutely defensible not to.

As to why you ran across so many double clerks - some people are really into clerking for the experience and want to work for two different kinds of courts. Some people may have ended up lining up two clerkships during one application season. Some people congenitally can’t pass up any chance to collect what they perceive as a brass ring.

Thank you this was a very helpful perspective.

[Crazysnackaroo]

No need to snag another. You've got the COA. Aside from the most competitive districts, many AUSAs don't clerk and many don't go to a T14. If SDNY or a similar place is your absolute goal, I still don't think you need to the dist. ct. clerkship. The COA + T14 magna show you could've gotten one. I really wouldn't worry about this. Go work and see what you like doing/want to do.

[Anonymous User]

I did 1 year biglaw > COA > Dct -- planned on doing just one clerkship but that's how my application cycle worked out. Loved both clerkships but there were definitely diminishing returns to the second. Also, losing a year at a firm is a meaningful detriment to your goodwill/reputation there, especially at bigger firms where it's already hard enough to stand out. OTOH, if you want to be a criminal AUSA, the benefits of clerking in the district where you want to work could outweigh the drawbacks. Unlike on the COA, on the dct you're in court all the time and get a feel for the AUSAs in the office which I'd imagine would be valuable. For main justice I don't think a random Dct year would be as helpful, but factors like the individual judge's pull might change that.

[Anonymous User]

I did 1 year biglaw > COA > Dct -- planned on doing just one clerkship but that's how my application cycle worked out. Loved both clerkships but there were definitely diminishing returns to the second. Also, losing a year at a firm is a meaningful detriment to your goodwill/reputation there, especially at bigger firms where it's already hard enough to stand out. OTOH, if you want to be a criminal AUSA, the benefits of clerking in the district where you want to work could outweigh the drawbacks. Unlike on the COA, on the dct you're in court all the time and get a feel for the AUSAs in the office which I'd imagine would be valuable. For main justice I don't think a random Dct year would be as helpful, but factors like the individual judge's pull might change that.

Do not want to be a criminal AUSA so that certainly makes it somewhat less valuable to me I guess.

[Anonymous User]

The reason people do both is that district court clerkships are less prestigious, but significantly more practical, so quite a few people want to do a district court but not just a district court. But there's no reason at all why you have to do one if you don't want to.

As mentioned, the most notable exception where you really should consider doing both is if you want to practice federal criminal law. There is a much bigger difference between criminal trial and appellate practice than there is between civil trial and appellate practice, and in SDNY in particular, an SDNY clerkship is at least as important as a CA2 one. You really don't learn much about criminal practice at all in an appellate clerkship unless maybe if you're clerking for a judge with an unusual emphasis on the criminal side like Raggi or Sullivan.

[Anonymous User]

A district court has many benefits and learning opportunities that you won't get at the COA level. You will get to be in court, get to see how a case runs, how a case settles, how lawyers think, and how trials operate. You won't get that at the COA level.

[Wild Card]

It's a real job, you learn a lot, and it's different from what you did at the appellate level. So why wouldn't you do one? It's a fun, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Also, as you seem to understand, T14 magnas are a dime a dozen. This is another meaningful credential that will help you stand out.

[Anonymous User]

"T14 magnas are a dime a dozen"

This is insane. Average TLS user hahaha