You research the law and draft the decisions for a judge. One or two years that change the rest of a legal career.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $64,920 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $46,180 at the lower end to about $113,140 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
7 to 8 years after high school, on the usual route.
$137,000 to $230,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no license to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$64,920
Bottom tenth
$46,180
Top tenth
$113,140
The national median is $64,920 a year, the bottom tenth earn $46,180 or less and the top tenth $113,140 or more, in the 2025 survey. Most clerkships are one or two year terms taken straight out of law school.
$46,180 to $52,870
The bottom tenth and bottom quarter of judicial law clerks, 2025
Most clerks take a one or two year term straight out of law school. Federal clerks are paid on the Judiciary Salary Plan (JSP), one of the two pay systems the federal courts use, with the grade set by your experience and an adjustment for where the court is.
$52,870 to $80,420
Half of all workers in the 2025 survey earn between these two figures
Some clerks stay with one judge permanently instead of leaving after a term. They know the docket and the judge's thinking better than anyone.
Roughly, all in
$137,000 to $230,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The clerkship itself is a paid job, so everything here is the law degree that gets you to it: an in state public bachelor's degree, the law school admission test, a public in state law school at roughly $30,000 a year, and the bar exam with preparation. The high end is the higher undergraduate rate plus a private law school at $55,000 a year or more. Clerkships are competitive and usually go to strong students from the school's own region, so the cheaper public route does not hurt you. Courts are government employers, so a clerkship counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which clears the remaining balance after ten years of qualifying payments.
The debt is the real cost, not the clerkship. Courts are government employers, so a clerkship counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), which clears the remaining balance after 10 years of qualifying payments.
Federal benefits
Health coverage, retirement contributions and leave, on the same terms as other federal court staff.
A reference that carries weight
A judge who will vouch for you is worth more in legal hiring than almost any grade.
A hiring bonus afterwards
Many large law firms pay a bonus to new associates who have completed a federal clerkship. The amounts vary by firm.
The best legal training available
You see every kind of lawyer argue, and you learn exactly which arguments work.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Seven years of school, then a job that usually lasts one or two.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
English, government and anything that makes you write long arguments and defend them.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Any major. Grades matter, because law school admission runs mostly on your average and your LSAT (Law School Admission Test) score.
Law school
3 years
Three years for a Juris Doctor (JD) degree. Legal writing grades, law review and a judicial internship are what clerkship applications are judged on.
Apply through the courts' system
During your second and third year
Federal law clerk and staff attorney positions are posted in OSCAR (the Online System for Clerkship Application and Review). State courts run their own processes.
Clerk for a judge
1 to 2 years
Usually one or two years. Then a law firm, a government office, academia, or a second clerkship at a higher court.
English
The job is reading fast and writing precisely. Nothing else comes close in importance.
Government and civics
How a case moves from a trial court to an appeal is the shape of your working day.
History
Precedent means an old decision controls a new one, so you read a lot of history.
Debate
You will pull apart both sides of an argument before your judge decides between them.
A clerkship is not a licensed job. Federal law clerks are not generally required to be admitted to a bar before they start, though many states expect clerks in their own courts to be admitted or to sit the exam soon after. What is never optional is the law degree. Hiring is run through OSCAR (the Online System for Clerkship Application and Review), which the Administrative Office of the United States Courts maintains, and it lists law clerk and staff attorney positions nationwide.
Federal district court
Trial level. Motions, evidence disputes and a front-row seat at real trials.
Federal appeals court
No trials, all writing. Long research memos and drafts of published opinions.
Bankruptcy and magistrate judges
High volume, very practical, and often a good first clerkship.
State supreme and appellate courts
Where most constitutional and criminal law that affects daily life is actually decided.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Law review or a journal
Editing and citation work is the clearest evidence you can handle the drafting.
A top legal writing grade
Judges ask about this specifically, because drafting is the job.
A judicial internship
A summer in chambers during law school, unpaid or funded by your school. The single best preparation.
A professor who knows the judge
Clerkship hiring runs on personal recommendations more than almost any other legal job.
Willingness to move
Courts are everywhere, and clerkships outside the big cities can be easier to get.
Discretion
You see draft decisions before anyone else. You say nothing about any of it, ever.
Speed with dense reading
Hundreds of pages of briefs and records per case, every week.
Accuracy that borders on fussy
A misquoted case in a published opinion is a real problem for a real person.
Not every clerkship is temporary. Career clerks stay with one judge indefinitely, and staff attorneys work for a whole court rather than a single judge, screening cases and drafting decisions in high-volume areas like immigration and prisoner appeals. Both are full careers with federal benefits and none of the billable-hour pressure of a firm.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Read the briefs for whatever is next on the calendar, then the record underneath them, then every case both sides rely on to see whether it says what they claim. Write a memo telling your judge what the law requires and where the arguments are weak. Sit in the courtroom for the hearing. Afterwards, draft the decision, hand it to the judge, and get it back covered in changes. Quiet, heavy reading, and very little of it in public.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
O*NET OnLine (the Department of Labor's occupation database) counts about 14,000 judicial law clerks in 2025, with about 1,500 job openings a year projected between 2025 and 2035. Nearly all of them are employed by government courts rather than private firms.
The federal courts' own clerkship site runs a video taking on the myth that judges only hire graduates of the top 14 law schools. Judges outside the biggest cities often hire from the law schools nearest to them.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Courts and legal support first, then the rest of the field. See every career in law and public safety.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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