NY Plaintiffs' Firms for Post-Clerkship Hiring
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2026 10:00 pm
I'm a HYS grad, halfway through a COA clerkship and done with a district court clerkship. I know I'm already late, but I'm finally starting to seriously look for post-clerkship jobs for the fall.
I went into law school with the intent to do public interest work, and I'm still looking for opportunities in that space. But since I didn't apply for PD positions or project-based fellowships, I'm waiting around to see what orgs might be hiring this year. Browsing PSJD has been less fruitful than I hoped so far...
As an alternative, I'm looking at plaintiffs' firms that hire for associate positions from clerkships. I'm fairly ideologically motivated so interested in hearing of any NYC firms that people recommend for doing public interest/plaintiff-side work. Also, if anyone has a sense of whether firms allow associates to work on different issue areas, rather than being siloed to a particular group, I'm all ears. But at this stage, basically any information about potential firms would be helpful as a starting point!
And since I know many of the plaintiff-side firm threads on here focus on compensation, I'm not under the illusion that I'll be paid biglaw market rate. It certainly seems like plaintiffs' firms pay more than most public interest orgs, so I'm not too concerned about salary or bonuses.
Thanks in advance for any contributions!
I went into law school with the intent to do public interest work, and I'm still looking for opportunities in that space. But since I didn't apply for PD positions or project-based fellowships, I'm waiting around to see what orgs might be hiring this year. Browsing PSJD has been less fruitful than I hoped so far...
As an alternative, I'm looking at plaintiffs' firms that hire for associate positions from clerkships. I'm fairly ideologically motivated so interested in hearing of any NYC firms that people recommend for doing public interest/plaintiff-side work. Also, if anyone has a sense of whether firms allow associates to work on different issue areas, rather than being siloed to a particular group, I'm all ears. But at this stage, basically any information about potential firms would be helpful as a starting point!
And since I know many of the plaintiff-side firm threads on here focus on compensation, I'm not under the illusion that I'll be paid biglaw market rate. It certainly seems like plaintiffs' firms pay more than most public interest orgs, so I'm not too concerned about salary or bonuses.
Thanks in advance for any contributions!