Resources
Judicial Clerkships
Types of Clerkships
Federal Circuit Court and District Court Clerkships
Clerkships with judges on United States Circuit Courts of Appeals are among the most prestigious positions for law school graduates to start their legal careers, and they are followed closely by clerkships with judges in United States District Courts.
Types of Courts
- US Supreme Court
- US Circuit Court
- US District Court
Timelines for Judicial Clerkship Application
- OSCAR: Online System for Clerkship Application and Review (also known as OSCAR https://oscar.uscourts.gov/) opens early in the second semester of 2L year, and applications are released to participating judges in June. Information on the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan can be found here: https://oscar.uscourts.gov/federal_law_clerk_hiring_pilot.
- Individual Judges: Not every judge follows OSCAR timeline; students must check with courts in which they are interested for a timeline of applications to each judge. Remember that many judges who do not follow the OCSAR timeline accept applications earlier and interview earlier than the OSCAR timeline.
- Typical Application Materials
- Interview Timing: Relatively soon after applications are released in OSCAR (for judges following OSCAR timeline) or soon after applications are submitted for other judges.
- Clerkship Offers: Typically, soon after interview is completed. Occasionally, an offer is made on the spot at the conclusion of an interview.
- Accepting Offers: Within twenty-four hours after offer is made. The norm is to accept the first offer received from a judge and not to leverage an offer from one judge to obtain an offer from another judge.
Sources for Judicial Clerkship Information
- OSCAR https://oscar.uscourts.gov/: The granddaddy of them all—OSCAR is a web-based system for federal law clerk and appellate staff attorney recruitment. It contains information about who is hiring and accepts and processes candidates applications and related letters of recommendation.
- US Courts (www.uscourts.gov): Offers general information about US Courts, including publications, directories, news, and information. Some judges do not post their clerkship openings in OSCAR. Students can search in US Courts by selecting Careers and then selecting Search Judiciary Jobs and then inserting Law Clerk in the search by job title or keyword box. Some postings may be duplicates of OSCAR. The postings in US Courts can be browsed by state, circuit, district, etc.
Other Sources of Information
- Judicial Clerkships Committee: Members of the BYU Law School Judicial Clerkships committee are ready, willing, and able to help all students seeking clerkships.
- Professors, Alumni, and Law Students: Professors and alumni who have clerked for a judge and law students who have accepted offers to clerk for a judge can provide a well of information for students seeking clerkships.
- BYU Law School Judicial Law Clerks (BYU Law Judicial Clerk List): This list on the Judicial Clerkships Committee page contains a list of BYU law school graduates who have served as judicial clerks from 2010 until today.
- The Federal Judicial Center (FJC) (www.fjc.gov): FJC website contains the Federal Judges Biographical Database, which can be used to create customized lists of judges based on multiple categories, including nominating president, type of court, dates of service and demographic groups.