should i try to clerk? (Y/S) Forum

[Elbble]

I have a somewhat unconventional background, and am trying to figure out if trying to clerk is worth it.

I'll be 33 when I graduate from Y/S, have a cool job offer that I like (small lit boutique in a major market), have a humanities PhD from my time before law school, and have a small child. My career goals are: work at the lit boutique for a little while (basically see if i can survive the long hours), then try to transition to a more policy institute kind of place (e.g. Brennan Center, Vera, ACLU), on the assumption that it'll be better hours and will make (more) use of my PhD.

In this scenario, would clerking help me at all? My issue is that my grades are average (after this semester possibly below average). I'm on law review/journal, but not in a fancy content position. I'm also already old, so don't love the idea of pushing "real" work back yet another year. Finally, bc of my family I'm stuck looking to either 2nd or 9th circuit, which I understand is super hard to get. Should I go through the insane headache to try to get a clerkship? Or should I just chill and go right into the lit job? What advantage would clerking get me, given my goals?

thanks!

[Elbble]

I have a somewhat unconventional background, and am trying to figure out if trying to clerk is worth it.

I'll be 33 when I graduate from Y/S, have a cool job offer that I like (small lit boutique in a major market), have a humanities PhD from my time before law school, and have a small child. My career goals are: work at the lit boutique for a little while (basically see if i can survive the long hours), then try to transition to a more policy institute kind of place (e.g. Brennan Center, Vera, ACLU), on the assumption that it'll be better hours and will make (more) use of my PhD.

In this scenario, would clerking help me at all? One issue is that my grades are average (after this semester possibly below average). I'm on law review/journal, but not in a fancy content position. I'm also already old, so don't love the idea of pushing "real" work back yet another year. Finally, bc of my family I'm stuck looking to either 2nd or 9th circuit, which I understand is super hard to get. Should I go through the insane headache to try to get a clerkship? Or should I just chill and go right into the lit job? What advantage would clerking get me, given my goals?

thanks!

(ps apologies for cross-posting; accidentally posted this in the wrong place earlier.)

[Elston Gunn]

Probably not what you want to hear, but for the types of jobs you want to exit to, the clerkship is likely to help significantly. Sounds like you’re at Y if you have average grades and Law Journal (though maybe that’s more doable at S than I realized). In that case, if you can find a professor or two to go to bat for you, even fairly competitive clerkships are very much doable, if by no means guaranteed. EDNY in particular is very much in play, in terms of the NYC area.

That said, it’s perfectly rational not to maximize every little bit of your resume for future career purposes. Personal happiness/making the right choice for your family is more important than whatever particular job you have, and you will be in a solid place to find work regardless.

[Elbble]

Thanks Elston, that’s helpful. My main issue is that at this point in my life I’m really over the hustle. If I were 24 I’d be chasing the gold stars like everyone else and doing backflips to wow the professors, but now I’m just too old for that shit. I have a couple of professors who could potentially help me out, but it would be frankly stressful to arrange. So I’m trying to discern, to the extent that’s possible, what specific, concrete benefits a clerkship can get me.

[Elston Gunn]

I’m not a PI person, so I don’t have direct experience, but I did go to Y and I have a number of friends who are in the kind of jobs you’re talking about exiting to. They all clerked and generally had quite fancy clerkships.

There’s a correlation is not causation issue here, of course, that I can’t solve. But all I can say is that it seems to me like ACLU/Brennan Center etc type organizations give a significant hiring boost for clerkships.

[QContinuum]

Thanks Elston, that’s helpful. My main issue is that at this point in my life I’m really over the hustle. If I were 24 I’d be chasing the gold stars like everyone else and doing backflips to wow the professors, but now I’m just too old for that shit. I have a couple of professors who could potentially help me out, but it would be frankly stressful to arrange. So I’m trying to discern, to the extent that’s possible, what specific, concrete benefits a clerkship can get me.

I don't want to sound harsh, but hustle and stress are the currencies of the realm for the career trajectory you want to follow (lit boutique, prestigious ACLU-level PI). This is not the path for someone who wants to take it easy. If you're "too old for that shit," as you assert (you're not; 33's hardly ancient, and I bet at least a quarter of your class, if not more, will be in their late 20s when they graduate and only a few years younger than you), then you should be heading to a large BigLaw office where you can blend into the background for a few years, and then exit in-house as soon as you can.

[Elbble]

I don't want to sound harsh, but hustle and stress are the currencies of the realm for the career trajectory you want to follow (lit boutique, prestigious ACLU-level PI). This is not the path for someone who wants to take it easy.

That’s fair. What I meant was that I’m over the pointless gold star chasing just for the sake of getting the gold star. I see a ton of that among the younger kids here - they don’t have any clear idea of what they actually want to do, but they’re absolutely certain that they need to grab whatever the next fancy thing is, whether that’s clerkships or RAships or whatever else. I’m absolutely happy to work my ass off for my actual job (and you’re right that that will be necessary). I’m just not into the hustle for the sake of hustle.

[Fireworks2016]

I have a somewhat unconventional background, and am trying to figure out if trying to clerk is worth it.

I'll be 33 when I graduate from Y/S, have a cool job offer that I like (small lit boutique in a major market), have a humanities PhD from my time before law school, and have a small child. My career goals are: work at the lit boutique for a little while (basically see if i can survive the long hours), then try to transition to a more policy institute kind of place (e.g. Brennan Center, Vera, ACLU), on the assumption that it'll be better hours and will make (more) use of my PhD.

In this scenario, would clerking help me at all? One issue is that my grades are average (after this semester possibly below average). I'm on law review/journal, but not in a fancy content position. I'm also already old, so don't love the idea of pushing "real" work back yet another year. Finally, bc of my family I'm stuck looking to either 2nd or 9th circuit, which I understand is super hard to get. Should I go through the insane headache to try to get a clerkship? Or should I just chill and go right into the lit job? What advantage would clerking get me, given my goals?

thanks!

(ps apologies for cross-posting; accidentally posted this in the wrong place earlier.)

Are you only interested in Circuit-level clerkships for some reason?

The advantages for you are similar to any other person clerking -- it's on your resume forever and it's a credential that signals that you will be a strong legal writer and know how litigation works.

Given that you are not interested in trying to make partner, I have a hard time understanding your hesitancy to clerk. Assuming you wind up with a normal or more laid back judge, clerking really doesn't need to be more than a 40/hr a week gig. That's a whole lot of time with your kid that you won't have if you go straight to a firm. And if you're not trying to make partner seven years from now, it doesn't matter whether you join the firm next summer or a year later.

[LBJ's Hair]

Feel like the Brennan Center/ACLU are just as much "gold star"-y as the clerkships you don't want to do, and are viewed by the people trying to get them as such. So trying to avoid doing the BS that may be a prerequisite to getting them, like a COA clerkship, seems odd to me? Not saying you're a prestige snob for wanting to do it, just saying that they *are* prestigious jobs, so it sorta makes sense that you have to do fancy stuff beforehand to get them.

That said, you have a PhD and if you're at Y, the usual rules may not apply.

[HillandHollow]

I disagree with the above advice that the clerkship would help your future career goals. Clerkships are common for staff attorney gigs at those places, but staff attorneys don't really do the policy work, they do the litigation. So clerking makes sense for them. For the policy jobs, I think your existing background and some time at a lit boutique would be plenty. You may want to try to publish one or two policy-related articles to burnish your resume, though. My friends who have gone in to policy jobs either had direct political/policy-related work history and went straight to policy after law school, or they went in to corporate work at biglaw (in a field related to the policy field) then to a Brennan/Vera/etc.