Congratulations 12:41! It's good to hear that there is some hiring being done in the SF/SV area.

OK all you soon-to-be clerks who are hijacking this clerkship recruiting thread (j/k), please note that a number of the above comments are incorrect/outdated. The new rules regarding clerkship salaries are as follows:

The table below shows the number of years of legal work experience required to qualify for appointment as a law clerk at the applicable Judiciary Salary Plan (JSP) grade levels. Please note that appointment to JSP-12 or above requires that the candidate be a member of the bar of a state, territory, or federal court of general jurisdiction.

JSP Years of Legal Experience Bar Mem. Required
11 0 No
12 1 Yes
13 2 Yes
14** 3 Yes

** Two years of federal chambers law clerk, staff attorney, pro se law clerk, bankruptcy appellate panel law clerk, or death penalty law clerk experience is required in order to be appointed at or promoted to JSP-14. Note: no judge may increase to more than one the number of chambers law clerks at JSP-14 or above.

Legal work experience is progressively responsible experience in the practice of law, in legal research, legal administration, or equivalent experience received after graduation from law school. Major or substantial legal activities while on military duty may be credited, on a month-for-month basis whether before or after graduation, but not to exceed one year if before graduation from law school.

Salary matching for law clerks no longer applies (unless you obtained a written salary matching promise from your judge prior to September 18, 2007)

Pay tables can be found here http://www.uscourts.gov/Human_Resources/Judicial_Salary_Plan_Locality_Rate_Pay_Tables_2008.html

You can also run a search on this board: http://www.infirmation.com/bboard/clubs.tcl?topic=Greedy%20Clerks
where this matter has been discussed ad nauseum.

Now, let's get back to discussing firms that are hiring law clerks.

Your community section needs serious re-working. Threads should appear in the order in which they were last updated, and comments should count. That way, old but live threads appear on the front, as do new threads.

And when you try to access old threads, there is this wierd previous/next choice, and you need to chose "previous" not "next" to get to the next page and it's counter-intuitive. Also, having a new page for each day takes too much time to scroll through. You should have a number of old posts appear on a page at a time (with only their titles).

Or (ideally) you could create a real message board (think Auto Admit, but with more class!) ;D

Honestly? I would drop the issue. While it is a little sleazy for the firm not to asterisk the 50k on their NALP form, it makes sense because your experience is really litigation experience and does not provide the firm with the same benefit if you're going into corporate work. Unless you have another offer from a firm you like equally who is offering you 50k, I would take the job and 35k and be grateful, especially in this market. The difference of 15k is really nothing in the scheme of things.

I just sent out resumes directly to firms and I don't personally know of any clerks who took a different approach. I would sometimes look at firm's posted lateral openings, but more to gage my chances (I would be more optimistic if they said they were hiring junior litigators than if they weren't).

I have definitely found that some markets are pretty much dead right now in terms of hiring (ex. LA, San Diego, Baltimore) but I don't know anything about New York other than what I read about on ATL.

If you are still looking at this point and haven't had much success, I would try looking at smaller markets if you have any location flexibility whatsoever. Like other posters have mentioned, Philly is still hiring. Don't overlook even smaller markets (ex. Wilmington if you are interested in the Philly area generally). Some places in the southwest or midwest are also relatively unaffected by the hiring skitishness some of the bigger markets are facing right now. I have had the most success with "big" firms in mid to small legal markets. Hope that helps!