To a certain extent, the impetus to do a judicial clerkship is driven a lot by inertia. This is what graduating law students do, and since I don't have a good reason not to clerk, I think I'll clerk.
Of course, I'll never get a clerkship if that's all I can say for it. Plus I take some pride in my ability to buck standardization trends in law school. You say 2Ls normally take only 12 units in the fall? I'm sorry, but there are too many things I want to learn while here... So I'll take 18. Stress out about grades? I think not. I'll take my exams seriously, but I refuse to look at the results. Do moot court? Do a journal? Of course! But not because it's what "everyone" does but because it's what I want to do.
So certainly I'd never want to do a clerkship just because it was the next step on the assembly line. I want to do it because it's a unique opportunity to be part of as essential part of our legal system. That said, having never been a clerk, I have to surmise what kind of experience would be. But the educated guesses I can come up with definitely appeal to me.
I've lamented in various posts how people often abdicate their role in their own governance to the legal institutions that wield so much power over their lives. I think that's a shame: the law belongs to everyone, and everyone needs to be able to control it – not be victimized by its awesome power.
In the long run I would like to help make those institutions be more accessible to everyone. In the short run I would like to make them more accessible to *me*. After law school I would like to be a litigator as a means of affecting positive chance. But for me to succeed at that, I will need to know more about how the judicial system actually functions. Towards that end I think the clerkship experience would provide an invaluable education.
But more than that, I think the clerkship itself can be an avenue for doing good. While lawyers may be zealous advocates, important pieces of the adversarial system, the whole point of that system is to yield a just result at the end. Such a result depends entirely on the fair process and resolution of a dispute – which is very much the responsibility of the judge. To be a clerk and support that noble end would be fulfilling on its own, and it's one I relish taking on.
One of my clerkship recommendation letter writers asked me to explain for her why I want to clerk. But I couldn't write something on such an important topic for just one person - I had to share it with everyone! I think it belongs here anyway, as an important part of the law student process. And so accustomed am I to exploring these types of things here that, when intended for the wider audience, it ended up much easier to write.