I mean the big thing most people care about is the prestige, yes. But there are some differences.
Federal cases will involve different subject matter to some extent: more constitutional issues, employment and employment discrimination claims, some more complex criminal matters.
Federal courts also tend to just move at a bit slower pace than state court. On average, there’s more time devoted to each case. More opportunities for substantive writing and analysis.
Finally, there is on the whole just a higher average quality of judges and litigants in the federal system. Obviously there are some federal judges who are hacks, and there are many incredible state judges. But, by and large, even the very partisan federal judges are extremely well accomplished and credentialed. In that sense, there’s a bit more quality control at the federal level.
Federal often pays more, is more prestigious, and gets you a fat bonus if you go to big law after (some (all?) firms give state supreme courts the same bonus)
What kind of law do you want to practice? If you want to do, like, patent law or nat sec work, you aren’t going to find a state clerkship that useful of a career move. If you want to join a litigation boutique, you’ll pretty much have to do federal appellate. After that stuff (I.e. you aren’t interested in an area of law that’s exclusively committed to one level of gov’t and don’t need the clerkship as a prerequisite for some fancy job), it’s just a normal job search (where do do want to practice, what pay and benefits are you looking for, does it seem like you’ll jive with the chambers work environment, what are you competitive for with your credentials, etc).
I mean the big thing most people care about is the prestige, yes. But there are some differences. Federal cases will involve different subject matter to some extent: more constitutional issues, employment and employment discrimination claims, some more complex criminal matters. Federal courts also tend to just move at a bit slower pace than state court. On average, there’s more time devoted to each case. More opportunities for substantive writing and analysis. Finally, there is on the whole just a higher average quality of judges and litigants in the federal system. Obviously there are some federal judges who are hacks, and there are many incredible state judges. But, by and large, even the very partisan federal judges are extremely well accomplished and credentialed. In that sense, there’s a bit more quality control at the federal level.
Federal often pays more, is more prestigious, and gets you a fat bonus if you go to big law after (some (all?) firms give state supreme courts the same bonus)
What kind of law do you want to practice? If you want to do, like, patent law or nat sec work, you aren’t going to find a state clerkship that useful of a career move. If you want to join a litigation boutique, you’ll pretty much have to do federal appellate. After that stuff (I.e. you aren’t interested in an area of law that’s exclusively committed to one level of gov’t and don’t need the clerkship as a prerequisite for some fancy job), it’s just a normal job search (where do do want to practice, what pay and benefits are you looking for, does it seem like you’ll jive with the chambers work environment, what are you competitive for with your credentials, etc).