A process that will be unfamiliar to those outside the law - but which will bring back bad memories to many of those in it - has come to an end. Offers have gone out. The cut off date for acceptance has come and gone. The clerkship process is over for 2018. A select few law students have claimed a spot in some of the nation's top firms. The rest are licking their wounds. Some of us - in both camps - may never recover.

Competing for a clerkship, a three-month internship that normally leads to a graduate position, has shattered my mental health.

With so many law students and so few positions the clerkship selection process s a recipe for poor mental health.

This gruelling, even cruel, process comprises rounds upon rounds of interviews, social interactions (with every conversation judged and recorded) and impossibly difficult logic and math tests. Jobs are in low supply and over-qualified law students numerous so participation feels inescapable.

I don't know why firms put aspiring lawyers through this system. The answer may simply be, because they can. Because law firms have all the power and because thousands of law students would readily climb mountains just for the chance to set foot in the door of one of these illustrious firms.