Clerking in law means working as a lawyer or law student who supports a judge or an attorney by handling legal research, drafting documents, and helping manage cases. The most prestigious version is a judicial clerkship, where a recent law school graduate works directly for a judge for one or two years. Clerking also happens inside law firms, where students work during the summer or school year, and inside federal agencies, where administrative law judges hire clerks to help with their caseloads. The work centers on research and writing in every setting, but the day-to-day looks quite different depending on who you work for.
One quick boundary before going further: a “clerk of court” is something else entirely. That person runs the administrative side of a courthouse, maintaining records, processing filings, collecting fees, and scheduling hearings. When lawyers talk about clerking, they almost always mean the law clerk role described here.
The Different Kinds of Clerking Jobs
Judicial Law Clerks
Judicial law clerks work directly for judges at every level of the court system, from state trial courts up through the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Department of Labor describes the role as assisting judges “in court or by conducting research or preparing legal documents.”1O*NET OnLine. Judicial Law Clerks Federal clerkships are the most competitive and carry the most weight on a resume. State court clerkships are more numerous and typically easier to land, and the actual work is similar.
Law Firm Clerks
Firms use the word “clerk” in a few different ways. Summer associates are law students who spend the summer between their second and third year at a firm, writing research memos, attending depositions, sitting in on client meetings, and drafting pieces of motions or briefs. Some firms also hire part-time law clerks during the school year. These positions function as extended job interviews. A strong performance usually ends in a full-time offer after graduation. A few firms also employ non-attorney clerks in paralegal-adjacent roles focused on documents and case organization.
Government Agency Clerks
Around 30 federal agencies employ administrative law judges who hear cases involving benefits disputes, regulatory enforcement, and licensing decisions. Some of those judges hire law clerks to assist with research, draft memoranda, and prepare orders.2Berkeley Law. Applying for Clerkships with Federal Administrative Law Judges These clerkships are usually two-year appointments, and clerks often rotate among multiple judges rather than being assigned to just one.3NALP. Federal Administrative Law Judges Post Graduate Clerkship Hiring Information
What a Judicial Clerk Actually Does
Research and Drafting
Research is the backbone of the job. Judges rely on clerks to work through statutes, case law, and procedural rules to find the answers they need to decide cases correctly. In most chambers, research and the writing that follows it take up the majority of a clerk’s time.4OSCAR. Duties of Federal Law Clerks
The signature document a judicial clerk produces is the bench memorandum, a short report that prepares the judge for a hearing or oral argument. A bench memo summarizes each side’s position, flags the key legal issues, points to areas that need further questioning, and often recommends an outcome. After the judge rules, the clerk typically drafts the opinion or order explaining the court’s reasoning. Clerks also proofread the judge’s own writing and verify every citation before anything is filed.4OSCAR. Duties of Federal Law Clerks
Courtroom Work
Clerking is not purely a desk job. During trials, clerks may take notes on testimony, track exhibits, research evidentiary questions as they come up, and help prepare jury instructions. In bench trials without a jury, a clerk often assists with findings of fact and conclusions of law. Some clerks also serve as court crier or act as a messenger between the judge and counsel during proceedings.5Federal Judicial Center. Law Clerk Handbook, Third Edition
Case Management
Alongside the research and writing, clerks handle a steady stream of administrative work: organizing case files, communicating with attorneys about scheduling and procedural requirements, maintaining the chambers library, and managing the judge’s calendar.4OSCAR. Duties of Federal Law Clerks
Confidentiality
Judicial clerks are bound by the Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees, which goes well beyond the professional responsibility rules of bar membership. Clerks cannot publicly comment on the merits of any pending case and cannot disclose anything learned through the clerkship that is not part of the public record, including the judge’s reasoning and internal deliberations. These obligations continue indefinitely after the clerkship ends, and former clerks are typically restricted from working on matters that were pending before their judge during their service.6OSCAR. Maintaining the Public Trust – Ethics for Federal Judicial Law Clerks
Term Clerks and Career Clerks
Federal judicial clerkships come in two forms. Term clerks serve on a time-limited appointment, usually one or two years, though some judges set eighteen-month terms. The total cap for term service is four years. Career clerks are appointed for four or more years and often stay with a judge for a decade or longer. The position announcement will say which type is being offered.7OSCAR. Qualifications, Salary, and Benefits Most clerkships law students target are term positions, but career clerks fill an important role in courts with heavy or specialized caseloads.
Who Qualifies
For federal judicial clerkships, you need a law degree from a school approved by the American Bar Association or the Association of American Law Schools. The minimum qualification at the entry JSP-11 level is academic excellence with no prior legal work experience. Higher grade levels require progressively more post-graduate legal experience and bar membership.7OSCAR. Qualifications, Salary, and Benefits In practice, the most competitive applicants graduate near the top of their class, serve on a law review, and have strong faculty recommendations.
State court clerkships vary. Some require bar passage within a year of starting; others do not require it at all. A handful of state courts administer a separate writing test during the interview process. The qualifications are set by individual judges, so researching the specific court matters.
In every clerking environment, strong legal research and writing skills are non-negotiable. You should be comfortable with legal research databases, able to synthesize large volumes of case law under deadline pressure, and careful with detail, because your work product goes out under a judge’s name.
How Hiring Works
Nearly all federal judicial clerkship applications go through OSCAR, the Online System for Clerkship Application and Review run by the federal courts. Applicants upload a cover letter, resume, grade sheet, and writing sample in PDF format, and identify recommenders through the system so their letters link directly to each application. OSCAR allows up to 100 active applications to chambers law clerk positions at a time.8OSCAR. Overview of the Application Process
Hiring for current law students follows a structured federal pilot that controls when judges can accept applications, contact candidates, and make offers. Any offer must stay open for at least 24 hours so the applicant can continue interviewing elsewhere. The pilot timeline applies only to current students; judges can hire graduates on their own schedule.9OSCAR. Federal Law Clerk Hiring Pilot
State courts do not use OSCAR. The process is decentralized and varies by jurisdiction and individual judge. You usually submit a cover letter, resume, transcript, writing sample, and letters of recommendation directly to chambers. A few states run centralized repositories, but most hire on a rolling basis as vacancies arise. Timing ranges from the summer after your second year of law school to the spring of your third year. Check the specific court’s website for openings and follow its instructions.
What Clerks Earn
Federal judicial law clerks are paid on the Judiciary Salary Plan, starting at JSP-11 for new graduates and increasing with experience and bar membership. JSP-12 requires one year of post-graduate legal work and bar admission; JSP-13 requires two years; and JSP-14 requires three years, at least two of which must have been spent as a judicial law clerk or in a similar federal judiciary role. The hiring judge sets the grade and step, and actual salary depends on locality pay for the court’s geographic area.7OSCAR. Qualifications, Salary, and Benefits
Clerkship salaries are significantly lower than what large law firms pay first-year associates. Many firms offset the gap with clerkship bonuses when a former clerk joins. At top firms, these bonuses can reach $100,000 to $175,000 or more for a single qualifying federal clerkship, which largely closes the income gap over the long run.
Why People Clerk
The real payoff is not the salary. Spending a year or two watching a judge decide cases teaches you how legal arguments actually land, which is something no law school class or firm training program replicates. You see dozens of briefs through the judge’s eyes. You find out firsthand why a motion fails, because you are the one researching why its argument does not hold up.
Former clerks also carry lasting credibility. Employers across litigation, transactional work, government, and academia treat a clerkship as a strong signal of legal ability. Many judges become long-term mentors, and the network of co-clerks tends to be tight-knit and professionally useful, since former clerks end up across every corner of the profession. For anyone aiming at a career in litigation, a clerkship is one of the strongest possible starts.