Special Questions for the Prospective Clerk

If you are applying for a permanent position commencing after a clerkship or internship, you should consider the following questions:

If I receive an offer of permanent employment, will it remain open through the period of my clerkship? What about a two-year clerkship?


Many law firms especially the larger ones will accommodate a clerkship, at least for a period of a year if given enough reasonable notice by a prospective clerk. There are, however, a few instances in which firms have refused to extend the traditional December 15 cutoff date. The two-year clerkship presents obvious special problems, although most of the larger firms handle one- and two-year clerkships in the same manner. For smaller firms it just depends on a given firm's particular circumstances at the time. In each firm there are various rules and conventions which you should understand. Ask questions in the interviewing process, not at the end of your clerkship.

How much credit will I receive for my clerkship?

Indeed the single most important question or series of questions for a prospective clerk relates to issues of compensation credit and credit in terms of consideration for partnership with your graduating class.

Practice among private law firms varies considerably. In almost every instance, clerks can expect to receive one year's salary credit for clerkships with state supreme courts or federal judges. In addition, most firms give full compensation credit to clerks who have spent one year with a federal judge or a state Supreme Court judge and a second year at the United States Supreme Court. Beyond that, the practice is not uniform.

Many firms refuse to give two years of credit for two-year district court clerkships or any two-step or two-year clerkship other than one which results in a position as a judicial clerk with the United States Supreme Court. Practice also varies with respect to credit for lower state court clerkships. In such instances, credit is not usually given. Just as an aside, be very wary of the law school faculty's push to have you clerk, regardless of for whom, where, or for what period. Even though it can be a very rewarding experience, clerking is not necessarily an essential part of your education.

Credit for partnership

Although many firms treat the compensation issue in the same fashion, there is a wide disparity with respect to credit for partnership admission purposes. Many firms offer complete compensation and partnership credit to Supreme Court clerks while others offer complete compensation credit, but insist that the partnership issue be treated separately, noting that if the experience has proved as valuable as it should have proved, there is every reason to believe Supreme Court clerks will be considered with their law school classes. Others are more can did and acknowledge that receipt of United States Supreme Court clerkship is, to some degree, a matter of chance and luck.
 

• See Law Schools That Send the Most Attorneys to United States Supreme Court Clerkships for more information about getting a clerkship in the US Supreme Court.

Those firms are likely to point out that equally qualified law students who have not been clerking but who have been working for the same two-year period will have a significant head start on a clerk. For these firms such work experience may be impossible to ignore. Generally, making up two years of practice is quite difficult. Of course there are exceptions to that rule. Notwithstanding that observation, most firms recognize that unless significant attention is paid, other than by lip service, to the compensation and the partnership credit issues, a firm will not be able to compete successfully for the two-year or Supreme Court clerk, and such clerks are and will remain very attractive potential associates.