Ann Israel is the legal profession's Dear Abby. A New York legal recruiter since 1979, Ann is a past president of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants. Advice for the Lawlorn is updated every week.

Q: I am a 3L at a top 10 law school in the top 15 of my class. I've accepted an offer at a Vault top 5 law firm.

I am interested in clerking and am considering applying now to begin a clerkship a year or two after working at the firm. Ideally, I'd like to go back to a Biglaw firm after I clerk.

I am worried that, considering the job market, it might be tough to get rehired at a firm later after I clerk. Will firms be reluctant to hire a third- or fourth-year if the economy keeps going the way it is going?

Dear Reluctant: You're kidding, right?

First of all, I don't think anyone with your credentials and thinking about taking on a clerkship should be concerned if they will be a viable candidate three or four years from now, whether or not the economy continues on with its downward spiral.

Additionally, taking on a clerkship is not exactly a career killer. With your background and with a year or two at a top Biglaw firm under your belt, applying to firms after a clerkship should only enhance your resume, not devalue it.

And as I have discussed many times before, you really don't know what the future will hold for you. Right now you are still in law school. Once you begin your career at a law firm, you may find that your interests in the litigation practice area are not as keen as you first found them to be. It could happen that other practice areas may start to appeal to you or the firm might assign you to those areas. You might not end up going on that clerkship. Or maybe you will. You just don't know where the future might lead you.

My question is, why are you rushing to apply for the clerkship now? Get one year of practice experience behind you to be certain that you want to be a litigator. At that point you can make a decision if you want to apply for the clerkship then or go for one more year in the firm before applying.

But let's say that you did apply now, and the clerkship is scheduled to begin at the end of your second year, and you do stay in the litigation practice area, as you plan to do at this time. Two years pass by, and you are in the midst of one of the most exciting trials in which the firm has ever been involved -- in fact, because you are such a star, your partner has really let you be a part of this trial, so much so that you have decided not to go to that clerkship and instead you are going to wait until the trial is over -- in about three months -- and then apply for a position with the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Or maybe because that partner has so much interest in your future, you decide to stick it out at this top 5 firm because your partnership track appears to be about as solid as is possible.

Or perhaps toward the end of your second year, just as you are about to leave for that clerkship, one of your best clients asks you out for lunch and tells you that they have an opportunity in their legal department, one that is an opportunity of a lifetime.

Or you might receive a phone call from one of my colleagues -- because someone with your credentials is going to receive phone calls from recruiters frequently -- with an opportunity that may warrant a look-see, and a look-see might turn into a job offer that might turn into an acceptance on your part.

See what I mean about not knowing what the future might hold for you?

My advice to you right now is to finish out your third year in law school, continuing on in the same way as you have for your first two years there. Keep those grades as high as they have been and finish out with the high honors that you are headed for right now. Begin your career at this prestigious law firm where you are slated to start your legal practice and see where life leads you instead of applying for the clerkship at this time. Don't worry your life away just yet. Let's hope the economy has corrected itself in three, four or five years from now! But whatever, you have a bright future ahead of yourself -- take it a day at a time for right now. You'll have more than enough time for worrying and stressing about the future down the road.

Best wishes!

Sincerely,
Ann Israel
President, Ann Israel & Associates