[skylark]

I've known for a while how hard the SCOTUS clerkship jobs were to get and that they went exclusively to top 5 law school grads. That was something that one of my professors told one of our 1L classes fairly early in my law school career. I think it was because there were some over-zealous gunners in class hinting that they thought they'd make excellent clerks for the supreme court. I did not go to one of the schools known for farming out SCOTUS clerks, so these gunners' dreams needed to be crushed, I think. I think it is sad because I'd sure love to see some more diversity of life experience in the people behind the scenes of the most important legal decisions in the country.

Last I heard, biglaw firms in NY and DC were giving out a set 200K in signing bonuses to ex-SCOTUS law clerks plus some were giving a reimbursement of the salary disparity that clerks would have made during their years as clerks if at their firm.

All I have to say about that is wow.

I remember telling my non-lawyer friends and family that I was going to do a clerkship. I got everything from "is that like a secretarial position?" to "do they pay you for that?" to "I thought you were doing really well in law school." I fully understand why many law clerks (especially federal) are now calling themselves "staff attorneys."