A Year in Chambers Could Be Worth $180,000 to the Right Firm

Figures correct as of October 12, 2026.

On October 1, 2026, Munger Tolles & Olson became the third firm to put $180,000 on the table for a single federal clerkship, payable to associates who join from July 2027. It is the first compensation figure of 2027 to be set, and it landed with Big Law’s year-end bonus season still weeks away.

A clerkship bonus is a one-time payment made in the first weeks or months of employment to an associate who joins a firm after a judicial clerkship. It is separate from base salary and from the year-end bonus, which goes to every associate who meets the hours threshold, and it is paid to former clerks only.

A clerk finishing next summer with offers from a trial boutique and a Big Law litigation group will see $180,000 in one letter and $125,000 in the other. The bonus is the number everyone talks about. By the time we meet most former clerks, as laterals, it is the part of the package that matters least.

Where a firm publishes the figure it does not vary it for an individual, so the bonus is the one part of a former clerk's offer that needs no negotiation. The class-year credit needs it, because most firms leave it unpublished and it decides the salary step on which the associate starts. So do the repayment terms, which appear nowhere but the offer letter. 

 

Who pays what for 2027

The top of the market is three litigation firms, and it sits $55,000 above the Big Law reference figure.

Susman Godfrey, Hueston Hennigan and Munger pay $180,000 for one federal clerkship and $200,000 for two, with Quinn Emanuel just below at $175,000. Boies Schiller, Yetter Coleman and Dovel & Luner hold the ground between $140,000 and $150,000. Cravath and Paul, Weiss pay $125,000 and $150,000, and that is where Big Law’s published figures stop.

Milbank led the June raise to the base scale and publishes no clerkship bonus, so Cravath’s figure remains the one the market quotes. Selendy Gay and Robins Kaplan publish $100,000, while White & Case publishes a range of $50,000 to $100,000 depending on the court.

Law firm clerkship bonuses for 2027

Firm	Announced	Qualifying clerkships	One clerkship	Two or more
Susman Godfrey	March 2026	Federal district or appellate, required of every incoming associate	$180,000	$200,000
Munger Tolles & Olson	October 2026, for associates joining from July 1, 2027	State supreme court, federal district or appellate	$180,000	$200,000
Hueston Hennigan	March 2025	Federal district or appellate	$180,000	$200,000
Quinn Emanuel	March 2025	Federal district or appellate	$175,000	$200,000
Boies Schiller Flexner	December 2024	Federal	$150,000	$175,000
Yetter Coleman	June 2026	Federal and state	$145,000	Not published
Dovel & Luner	March 2024	Federal	$140,000	Not published
Cravath	March 2024	"Qualifying clerkships", undefined on the firm's page	$125,000	$150,000
Paul, Weiss	Not dated	Judicial clerkship	$125,000	$150,000
Selendy Gay	Not dated	Federal district or appellate	$100,000	$125,000
Robins Kaplan	Not dated	Federal district or appellate	$100,000	Not published
White & Case	Not dated	"Approved court", with class credit	$50,000 to $100,000, by court	Not published
Bass, Berry & Sims	Not dated	Federal district, appellate or Supreme Court, with class credit	$20,000	$30,000

Source: Figures correct as of October 12, 2026. Each firm name links to its source. The table covers firms that publish a figure.

The $180,000 tier is nineteen months old. When Cravath moved to $125,000 in March 2024, most Big Law firms were still paying between $50,000 and $75,000. Hueston Hennigan went to $180,000 a year later and held the top of the market alone for twelve months. Susman matched it in March 2026, up from $125,000, and Munger followed in October, less than two years after it was paying $80,000. Munger’s figure applies to associates who join on or after July 1, 2027, so a clerk starting there earlier should ask which terms the firm will honor.

A longer list of firms publishes nothing. Covington and Gibson Dunn say only that their bonus is competitive. Latham, Skadden, Kirkland, WilmerHale, Davis Polk, Debevoise, Jones Day, Simpson Thacher, Cooley, Orrick, Wilson Sonsini and Cleary give no figure on their websites that we could find, and most of them pay one. A clerk talking to one of those firms should ask for the figure and the credit policy in writing before the offer stage, so the comparison with a published firm is made on the same terms.

 

What the firms are paying for

A clerk spends a year drafting the opinions the judge edits and watching from the bench which arguments land. The litigation firms pay for that because of how they staff cases. At Susman, Hueston Hennigan and the other litigation boutiques that pay above the Big Law scale, teams are small and an associate takes depositions and prepares witnesses in the first year or two. A lawyer who has spent a year behind the bench needs less supervision to do it. Susman will not hire an associate who has not clerked, so its $180,000 goes to every lawyer it takes on, and Munger says over 80% of its litigators clerked for a federal or state judge.

The same firms are competing for a small pool. A clerk finishing in August can go to a boutique, to a Big Law litigation group, to a US Attorney’s office or into a second clerkship, and a firm’s offer has to hold up against all four. Cravath hires former clerks across a broader practice and has left its bonus at $125,000 for two and a half years, which suggests it feels less of that pressure.

For a clerk choosing between a boutique at $180,000 and a Big Law group at $125,000, the $55,000 is worth setting against the difference in salary over the following years and against the work each firm gives a second-year, because the bonus is paid once and the other two are paid every year.

 

A first-year package with and without the clerkship

The bonus is what separates a former clerk’s first-year package from a classmate’s. Follow two lawyers from the same law school class through their first year at a firm. One joins a Big Law litigation group straight from law school. The other clerks for a federal judge first and arrives a year later with a choice, a Big Law group paying Cravath’s $125,000 or one of the boutiques paying $180,000. Either way the clerk starts a year further up the salary scale, with the bonus on top of it.

Route to the firm	Base	Clerkship bonus	First year total
No clerkship, first-year	$235,000	None	$235,000
One clerkship, second-year, $125,000 bonus	$245,000	$125,000	$370,000
One clerkship, second-year, $180,000 bonus	$245,000	$180,000	$425,000

Base figures are the 2026 market scale Milbank set in June, applied to both former-clerk rows. Bonuses are the firms’ published figures. First year total figures are before end-year bonus. 

The former clerk finishes the year $135,000 ahead at Cravath and $190,000 ahead at the boutiques paying above it, and only $10,000 of that is the extra year of seniority. What the table does not show is the year before it. A first-year federal clerk earns between $75,000 and $88,000 depending on the city, while the classmate spent that year at the firm on $235,000, so the clerk arrives roughly $150,000 behind. That is what the bonus is for. Cravath’s $125,000 covers most of that gap, so a clerk who joins a Big Law group is still around $30,000 behind the classmate after two years. The boutiques’ $180,000 covers all of it, with around $25,000 to spare. The bonus, in other words, repays the lost year and then stops. The year of credit keeps paying, and that is the next thing to look at in an offer.

 

Class-year credit

Most firms count a clerkship as a year of seniority, which is why the former clerk in the table starts on second-year pay. That one step is worth more than the bonus by the time the lawyer is up for partner. The clerk is paid at the step above for every year that follows, and on the 2026 Milbank scale the steps from first year to eighth add up to $220,000 in base. The year-end bonus usually tracks salary class, so it moves too, and so does the point at which the partnership conversation starts.

Firms publish the bonus and keep the credit policy to themselves. Cravath is typical. Its website gives the bonus figure and one credit rule, two years for a Supreme Court clerk who has also clerked elsewhere, and says nothing about a single clerkship. Second clerkships are where the policies differ most. In our experience some firms give two full years and some give one, and a few count the second year for salary only, which leaves the bonus class a year behind.

The credit matters again on a lateral move, which is the point where we usually get involved. A firm hiring a former clerk as a lateral sets its own class year and does not have to honor the one the first firm gave, so it is the first thing we agree with the hiring firm.

 

Clawbacks and payment terms

A bonus this size comes with strings. The terms we see most often take the whole bonus back if the associate leaves within the first year and part of it in the second, on a schedule that appears nowhere but the offer letter. That repayment is the part of the bonus we deal with most, because a former clerk who moves inside the window still owes the money, and whether the hiring firm covers it is part of the lateral negotiation.

Payment timing varies too. Some firms pay on the first payroll and others at a fixed point later in the first year. Susman advances up to $25,000 on acceptance and pays the rest on the start date.
Firms also ask whether another firm has already paid for the clerkship. Munger pays net of any clerkship bonus a previous employer paid, and Susman will not pay for a clerkship another firm has already bonused. A clerk who took a smaller bonus at one firm, went back for a second clerkship and is now looking again should raise that early, because it can take the headline figure off the table.

 

Which clerkships qualify

Where a clerkship sits in the table depends on the court. A year with a federal district or appellate judge is the benchmark for the headline figure across the market, though each firm sets its own qualifying rules.

A state or magistrate clerkship is worth whatever the individual firm decides, because there is no market rate for either. Yetter Coleman pays its full $145,000 to state clerks, and Munger pays its $180,000 for a state supreme court clerkship and lists no other state court. White & Case pays anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 depending on the court. Cravath’s page says “qualifying clerkship” without explaining the term, so a state clerk talking to Cravath should ask what it covers.

A Supreme Court clerkship is a separate market. White & Case publishes a $400,000 bonus for one, and Gibson Dunn put the top of the market at $500,000 in 2024. A former Supreme Court clerk cannot take part in a case before the Court for two years after leaving. The $400,000 to $500,000 is a long-term bet on a lawyer who can help build an appellate practice once that restriction ends, not payment for the next two years of Supreme Court work.

 

Should you clerk?

Yes, once, if you intend to litigate. The money no longer argues against it. After two years a clerk who took the bonus and a year of credit is around $25,000 ahead of a classmate at the boutiques, and around $30,000 behind at Big Law. From the third year the two are paid the same. That is a small price for a year most litigators never get again, drafting rulings for a judge and watching which arguments land.

The year also opens doors that stay open. It is the only point in a litigator’s career spent on the other side of the bench, reading every brief and seeing which ones move the judge. The firms that value that most hire almost nobody without it. Susman will not hire anyone without one, and remains the only firm that requires all incoming associates to complete a federal judicial clerkship for an Article III district or appellate judge prior to joining. Most other firms do not formally mandate a clerkship, but several prominent litigation and appellate-heavy firms staff a massive percentage of their litigators with former clerks, including Munger, Covington and Gibson Dunn.

The value lasts. When that lawyer moves firms a few years later, hiring partners still look for the clerkship on the resume, and most will recognize the judge. At the boutiques a resume without one is a harder sell at any level.

That yes is for litigation. For any other practice area the year needs weighing carefully. The bonus and the credit still arrive, but a year in chambers is a year of litigation experience. A lawyer joining any other practice group starts a year behind their classmates on the work that group does.

A second clerkship is a closer call. Firms pay $20,000 more for it at the $180,000 tier and $25,000 more at Quinn Emanuel and Cravath, so the bonus alone does not cover another year on a judge’s salary. The case for it rests on the judge and the court. A second year with a feeder judge or on an appellate court can set up an appellate career or a Supreme Court clerkship, which is a different market again.

Stacking the Deck, a May 2026 Vanderbilt Law research paper by Tracey George, Albert Yoon and Mitu Gulati”, interviewed around 130 federal judges. It found that graduates stack clerkships partly because the hiring process tells them too little about the judges they apply to, at the cost of another year before they start in practice. One of the longest-serving judges in the study said candidates get nothing more from the extra years. When those lawyers move firms later, we see the second year judged on where it was spent rather than on the bonus it carried.

Nobody knows yet whether $180,000 will last, and until the large litigation groups show their hand the only safe number is the one in the offer letter. The bonus is also paid once and clawed back for two years, so the firm is worth choosing for the work rather than the check.

 

What to watch between now and July 2027

Munger’s $180,000 does not take effect until July 1, 2027, which gives the rest of the market nine months to respond. Whether it does will show up in two places.

The year-end bonus scale lands in November or December and although it has nothing to do with clerks, it will show how much cash Big Law is willing to spend this cycle on top of the base scale it reset in June. 

The clearer signal is whether any large litigation group publishes a clerkship figure above $125,000 before the 2027 clerks accept offers in the spring. Should one do so, the $55,000 gap closes and the boutiques lose their edge on the signing bonus, though they would still pay above Big Law on salary. If none does, the tier will be two years old by the time the 2027 clerks start, which is long enough to call it the rate.

A clerkship stays on a litigator’s resume long after the bonus is spent, and the firms that paid for it at the start are the ones that look for it on a lateral. If you clerked and are weighing a move, register with us to be considered for private practice roles as they come up, or browse our current private practice vacancies.

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Sources

Bonus figures are taken from each firm’s published terms, linked by name in the table above. Base salaries are the 2026 market scale set by Milbank in June. Clerk pay is from the US Courts Judiciary Salary Plan for 2026. The two-year bar on former Supreme Court clerks appearing before the Court is Rule 7 of the Rules of the Supreme Court. The research on clerkship stacking is Stacking the Deck Vanderbilt Law Research Paper by Tracey E. George, Albert H. Yoon and Mitu Gulati dated May 29, 2026 and forthcoming in the George Washington Law Review Arguendo. Figures were checked on October 12, 2026.