Supreme Court law clerks are the small group of attorneys — roughly 36 in a given term — who work directly for the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court, screening petitions, preparing the justices for oral argument, and drafting opinions. Each justice is entitled to hire up to four clerks per term, and retired justices who continue working on cases may hire one.1United States Courts. Supreme Court Procedures The job lasts one term, pays a federal government salary, and tends to launch the people who hold it into the top ranks of American law.
What Clerks Actually Do During the Term
Reading the Cert Pool
More than 8,000 petitions for certiorari arrive at the Court each term, and the clerks read them. Seven of the nine justices participate in the cert pool, a labor-saving arrangement that divides incoming petitions among the participating chambers. A single clerk reads an assigned petition, writes a memorandum summarizing the facts and legal issues, and recommends whether the Court should grant or deny review. That memo then circulates to all seven participating justices.1United States Courts. Supreme Court Procedures The two justices who opt out of the pool have their own clerks independently review every petition, which is a far heavier workload but provides a separate check on the process.
The pool memo matters. Clerks are expected to flag genuine splits between lower courts, identify procedural problems that might prevent review, and candidly assess whether a case raises the kind of important federal question the Court is most likely to take. A poorly reasoned memo can cause a worthy case to be overlooked.
Bench Memos Before Argument
When the Court agrees to hear a case, clerks prepare bench memos — detailed analytical documents that walk their justice through the trial record, the relevant precedents, the briefs filed by both sides, and any amicus submissions. A good bench memo identifies the weak points in each party’s argument and suggests questions the justice might want to explore from the bench. The preparation phase often involves vigorous back-and-forth between the clerk and the justice, with the clerk testing legal theories and pushing the justice to confront the strongest version of the opposing argument.
Drafting Opinions
After the justices vote in their private conference, opinion writing begins. In practice, all nine justices have their clerks produce an initial draft. From there, the process varies by chambers. Some justices lift sections of a clerk’s draft into an entirely new document they write themselves; others work through multiple rounds of editing, layering in their own reasoning and voice. The final published opinion belongs to the justice, who bears full responsibility for every word. Clerks also check citations, research supporting case law and statutory text, and sometimes draft concurrences or dissents when their justice is not writing the majority. The Court typically issues 60 to 70 opinions per term, and many land in a compressed window at the end of June.
Who Gets Hired
There is no formal checklist, but the credentials are remarkably uniform. Nearly every successful candidate holds a law degree from one of a small handful of elite schools, graduated near the top of their class, and served on their school’s law review, often in a leadership role. The hiring market is concentrated enough that observers describe it as a closed network where the same schools and the same judges appear year after year.
The single most important qualification is usually a prior clerkship with a “feeder judge” on a federal court of appeals. Two lower-court clerkships are common for applicants. The D.C. Circuit functions as the most reliable pipeline, particularly for the chambers of the Chief Justice and several associate justices. The Fourth, Sixth, and Ninth Circuits contribute a steady stream of candidates as well, but the D.C. Circuit’s concentration of high-profile constitutional cases gives its clerks a natural advantage. Feeder judges act as gatekeepers, and their recommendation carries enormous weight.
How the Hiring Process Works
Each justice runs an independent hiring process. There is no centralized application, no committee, and no uniform deadline. One justice might review candidates a full 18 months before the clerkship starts; another operates on a shorter timeline. Most rely heavily on their current clerks to screen the hundreds of applications that arrive each term and flag the strongest candidates for interviews.
The Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan coordinates application and interview dates for lower federal courts. In 2026, those applications open on June 8, interviews begin June 10, and offers must stay open for at least 24 hours.2OSCAR. Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan The Supreme Court is not bound by that plan. Justices set their own schedules, and offers for a Supreme Court clerkship typically go out roughly a year before the clerk’s term begins. Candidates are often juggling a lower-court clerkship while going through the Supreme Court hiring process at the same time.
The system rewards relationships. A strong recommendation from the right feeder judge can matter more than a paper application, and candidates who clerk for judges with established connections to specific justices hold a structural advantage that no amount of résumé polishing can replicate.
Pay During the Clerkship and What Comes After
Supreme Court clerks are paid under the federal Judiciary Salary Plan, typically at the JSP-11 or JSP-12 level. For the Washington, D.C., locality in 2026, JSP-11 starts at $85,447 and tops out at $111,087, while JSP-12 ranges from $102,415 to $133,142.3United States Courts. Judiciary Salary Plan Washington-Baltimore-Arlington 2026 That is respectable but modest by the standards of what these lawyers could earn elsewhere, and the gap becomes obvious the moment the clerkship ends.
Major law firms routinely offer former Supreme Court clerks signing bonuses of $400,000 or more on top of the standard first-year associate salary. That figure alone often exceeds what the clerk earned during their entire year at the Court. The bonus reflects both the prestige of the credential and the practical skills it signals: a year immersed in the most complex constitutional questions in the country.
Not everyone heads to a firm. Former clerks hold prominent positions across government, academia, and the judiciary. Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Elena Kagan, and Justice Neil Gorsuch all clerked at the Court before eventually returning as justices. Others become law professors, solicitors general, or senior officials in the executive branch. As a federal judicial branch employee, a clerk also qualifies for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which can meaningfully reduce law school debt for those who continue in government service.
Confidentiality and Practice Restrictions
Confidentiality is treated as an absolute obligation. Private conference deliberations, preliminary vote counts, and draft opinions are never to be disclosed. Justices need to be able to change their minds, test arguments, and negotiate language without fear that the process will be litigated in public. Breaches have been vanishingly rare, and when they occur the consequences are career-ending.
One point that catches outsiders off guard: the Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees, which governs most federal court staff, does not apply to Supreme Court employees.4Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Guide to Judiciary Policy Vol. 2A Ch. 3 – Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees Instead, Supreme Court chambers operate under standards established by the justices themselves. In November 2023, the Court adopted the Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court, which requires justices to impose similar ethical restraints on chambers personnel and mandates ethics training for all Court employees.5Supreme Court of the United States. Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States
The practice restrictions extend well beyond the clerkship year. Supreme Court Rule 7 prohibits any Court employee from practicing law while employed at the Court. After leaving, former clerks cannot participate in any professional capacity in any case pending before the Court, or being considered for filing, until two years after their departure. And a former clerk may never work on any case that was pending during their tenure, regardless of how much time has passed.6Supreme Court of the United States. Rules of the Supreme Court of the United States – Rule 7 That lifetime ban on tenure-period cases is the sharpest restriction, and one former clerks must track carefully when they enter private practice.
Who Actually Gets These Jobs
For all its prestige, the Supreme Court clerkship has a persistent diversity problem. Since 2005, approximately 85 percent of Supreme Court clerks have been white, and the share of Black and Hispanic clerks has barely increased over two decades. Women make up roughly one-third of the total, an improvement from one-quarter two decades ago but still well below the proportion of women now enrolled in law schools. The pipeline from a handful of elite schools through a handful of feeder judges structurally limits who gets a realistic shot at these positions, and incremental efforts to broaden the pool have not yet changed the overall picture in a meaningful way.