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Hey all! I'm a rising 3L at CCN mid / late interview process with a district court judge and wondering whether to keep going in the process. The judge is in C.D. Cal., but for personal and professional reasons I was hoping to clerk in the New York area (so SDNY, EDNY, DNJ, D. Conn., etc.). I really want to clerk, but because of my partner's career, we'd need to live in a major city (long distance is non-negotiable). I've travelled to LA, and while I think it's fine, I would really rather be some place in the northeast. On the other hand, given restraints with my partner, I'm already pretty limited on where I can apply to clerk.

Given all that, would it be stupid to pull out this point and try to land a clerkship with a NY-area judge off-plan?

Stats: just outside top 10%, law review, have some student work being published

This seems like more of a personal question, but based on what you’ve said, it really depends on whether you have a BigLaw job in NYC.

If so, then it seems like you prefer to live there long-term and you should just keep doing that, hoping you land a clerkship there at some point. No reason to blow up your life for a clerkship you’re clearly hesitant to take.

If you’re not already in NYC, then I would take the clerkship. It’s presumably going to be easier to pivot into NYC BigLaw from that then whatever you’re doing now. Not saying it’s a sure thing but there’s a lot of west coast clerks in NYC.

I do want to note though — you say you can’t do long distance even for a year, but many of the DNJ/DCT clerkships will be medium distance if your partner has to be in NYC — I assume Philly and Boston don’t count as “major cities” since you didn’t say EDPA or DMass. Obviously not the same as CA to NYC, but it’s still going to be either an awful commute or weekends-only if you’re in Trenton or Bridgeport. And SDNY/EDNY is just a tougher get. And it seems like less of their judges are off plan than, e.g., DNJ.