2025-2026 Post-Clerkship Recruiting Forum
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 433364
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: 2025-2026 Post-Clerkship Recruiting
Just wanted to add a data point, as I’m still hearing silence from many of the typical big law firms. However, I am getting traction with litigation boutiques.
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 433364
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: 2025-2026 Post-Clerkship Recruiting
Maybe people don’t really use this forum anymore, and that’s why there’s less conversation happening. Or maybe others are having regular post-clerkship recruiting cycles, and I’m the problem. But I’m having zero luck in this market, and it would be nice to hear what other people’s experiences have been like
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 433364
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: 2025-2026 Post-Clerkship Recruiting
It’s been a very difficult market for me. I’ve had quite a few interviews but plenty of firms told me they aren’t hiring right now. I’ve been steadily gaining traction, but it was initially very slow. That said, I still don’t have anything fully locked down yet.
-
Anonymous User
- Posts: 433364
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: 2025-2026 Post-Clerkship Recruiting
HYS grad w/ CA 2/9/DC + district court clerkships, it was a brutal cycle for me despite months of extensive networking, and I heard similarly from others (several are still looking without much luck). I had 5 direct rejections, 5 callbacks, and luckily wound up with 1 offer a few months ago that I accepted. In my callbacks, many interviewers said I should be getting a lot of offers from firms and were eager to answer my questions about their group, yet it didn't end up working out. It seems like there's not a lot of appetite to hire clerks. As a data point, I also had referrals forward my resume for some generic/non-boutique BigLaw firms that hadn't opened apps yet and cold applied for a handful of others in the winter, and I haven't heard a peep from most of them even to this day.
