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Well, it happened to me. I sent out a large number of applications (around 70) to both districts and circuit courts across the country, and I got one interview and no offers. (lower t14, top 5%, ed board on flagship journal, etc.)
It's still a major goal of mine to clerk and I'm trying to figure out what a realistic plan moving forward looks like. I have conferred with my school's clerkship office, but, while I like them, I am also somewhat suspicious of their motives, in that they obviously want students to clerk and will basically try to sell you on the panhandle of Idaho if they think it will make their stats look better.
It seems like there are basically three paths:
1. Try to get a clerkship ASAP by spamming apps to anyone who's still open.
2. Apply throughout the year as things become available, accepting that I might not get an offer until May or something.
3. Give up and try again after working for a year.

Anyone who's gone through the same process have any thoughts? I really hate the idea of spending my 3L year on this but I also am oldish and don't really want to wait to clerk.

I was in a similar situation. You had the right approach for plan day, and you have the right perspective on your options. I think (2) is best. Make sure to keep in touch with your recommenders about your applications.

(2) is your best option. Many of my friends got blanked on plan and ended up getting a clerkship sometime during 3L. (As you may or may not know, there is usually an informal round of 3L hiring right before the plan opens, at least for those judges that typically hire during plan week). If clerking is really important to you, consider picking up another RA job etc if you got the sense one of your letters was weaker than the others.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 21, 2026 12:43 pm

I was in a similar situation. You had the right approach for plan day, and you have the right perspective on your options. I think (2) is best. Make sure to keep in touch with your recommenders about your applications.

My initial plan was to reach back out to thank my recommenders for their letters after I got a clerkship, but obviously that failed. Now I don't really know what to say to them.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 21, 2026 12:43 pm

I was in a similar situation. You had the right approach for plan day, and you have the right perspective on your options. I think (2) is best. Make sure to keep in touch with your recommenders about your applications.

My initial plan was to reach back out to thank my recommenders for their letters after I got a clerkship, but obviously that failed. Now I don't really know what to say to them.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 25, 2026 7:22 pm

(2) is your best option. Many of my friends got blanked on plan and ended up getting a clerkship sometime during 3L. (As you may or may not know, there is usually an informal round of 3L hiring right before the plan opens, at least for those judges that typically hire during plan week). If clerking is really important to you, consider picking up another RA job etc if you got the sense one of your letters was weaker than the others.

Yeah, I've seen the waves of 3L/alumni hiring in our clerkship portal. It's just so depressing to think of having to do this for another full year - I was really hoping to be able to take a breather and actually enjoy 3L. It feels like I killed myself this semester for no reason since having good grades obviously wasn't worth anything.