I’m a current federal clerk and I have an option to clerk again with a different federal judge or take a career clerk position with a state judge. Any insight into how each would impact my career path going forward?

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I’m assuming the state court position is not the highest appellate court. Answer would be different for something like NY Ct App.

Two USDC clerkships is a bit odd but not unheard of. Usually there’s a specific reason. E.g., one person I knew did both SDNY and DDC because both are prestigious and somewhat different. Another was from Puerto Rico, really wanted to clerk in DPR, and got a DPR offer after accepting elsewhere. Another got a joint Rakoff/Katzmann offer for SDNY/CA2 after taking another USDC offer. (Personally, my SDNY clerkship was my favorite job ever, and I would have gladly taken another year with another district judge just about anywhere instead of heading back to biglaw.)

The state court career clerk position is exactly that: a career position. Mediocre salary but retire with a pension. It’s fine to take if you want to make a career in the state court system, and it’s a good option in NYC if you want to be a state court judge someday. It might be an okay option if you want to have a small state-court practice, or in some places if you want to go into local criminal work. (On the last point, consult locals in your area for advice.) But it’s definitely a big step away from biglaw in a way that the second USDC clerkship is not.

Good luck!

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Are you at the district or circuit level right now? And what level is the next federal judge for whom you might be working?

Take the second USDC clerkship. Another year honing your writing and reasoning has a lot of value to quality firms. And the job market is bad. Rarely, if ever, would a state court career clerkship add value to your resume, especially if it was good enough to get you 2 USDC clerkships, including one in SDNY, which is probably the most prestigious and sought after trial court clerkship on the country.

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