Location vs. reputation Forum

[Anonymous User]

I have seen many people on tls refer to the special value of clerking for a judge on the 2nd, 9th or DC circuit.
Is it true that these clerkships are better regarded than other appellate clerkships?
How are they regarded in comparison to clerkships with feeders/semi-feeders elsewhere in the country?

[Lavitz]

This conversation happened last month if you want to read through it: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... #p10060135

FWIW, I agree with rpupkin and I'm not sure I'd have much to add.

[mjb447]

I think that's partially because lots of TLSers want to work in NY/CA/DC afterward (a clerkship where you want to practice is almost always better than a comparable clerkship somewhere else) or because a clerkship in one of these circuits may give you experience in certain areas (e.g. fedgov stuff in DC; big commercial, financial, soft IP etc. matters from SDNY/EDNY/CD Cal/ND Cal) that some employers value. I don't think that there's much of an additional "prestige" bump just for clerking for a random judge on one of these circuits, particularly compared to a feeder elsewhere.

[DougEvans789]

A few years ago, there was a thread with a SCOTUS clerk, and he/she seemed to be of the view that there were "real" benefits to a CADC clerkship. I think that's basically correct. But apart from that one caveat, I think location doesn't really matter (unless you're looking to impress a handful of people on TLS).

[OutCold]

In the vast majority of cases, I would say that it is most valuable to clerk where you want to practice. There are very few people in the profession who care who you clerked for, and in my experience, those people are mainly in the upper-echelon appellate practices or boutiques down in DC. That's not shocking, since those places are filled with people who cared greatly about their relative prestige of the judges they clerked for.