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How competitve is a US district court clerkship?
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How competitve is a US district court clerkship?
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You don’t. In law, saying no gets you labeled “difficult” and passed over.
Agree on not saying no. It'll earn you a bad reputation. You are better off saying "I have a lot I'm working on right now but I can work on it later and turn it around by x date if that works" Give yourself enough allowance so that you can actually turn it around by x date otherwise if you miss that deadline, no one will remember you were trying to do a favor by taking on the work in the first place. They'll just remember you missed a deadline and count it against you. Whew...it's a tough world we are in.
You can’t say no, you have to make yourself the non-preferred option. “I’d love to help but I’m working on X for Y. If this is something I can do on Z date, I’d be happy to turn to it next!” (And hopefully Y is someone that outranks the person making the current request).
I am in the same boat but I don't think I'm exhausted because of the inability to say no. I know I've lost all motivation at my firm and have low morale (for a number of reasons including poor management and lack of consistent work) so I'm thinking changing jobs will do the trick. If anyone else has been there, tips are welcome.