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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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$64,920
First-year term clerk
$46,180
Career clerk
$113,140
The national median is $64,920 a year, and the bottom tenth are near $46,180. Most clerkships are one or two year terms taken straight out of law school, which keeps the middle of this range low compared to what those same people earn afterwards.
About $46,000 to $65,000
A one or two year clerkship 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.
$113,140 or more
What the top tenth earn
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, and they are paid accordingly.
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 easier to be hired for than the courts above them.
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 are far 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. They are also the reason the top of the pay range is so much higher than the median.
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.
About 14,500 judicial law clerks work in the entire country, with roughly 1,000 openings projected over a decade. Nearly all of them are employed by government courts rather than private firms.
OSCAR (the Online System for Clerkship Application and Review) is run by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and posts law clerk and staff attorney openings nationwide. New positions appear on it every week.
The courts' own guidance is direct about this: applicants from all law schools compete for these positions. Judges outside the biggest cities often hire from the law schools nearest to them.
Clerks research the law and write first drafts of opinions and orders. The decision, and every word of it once signed, belongs entirely to the judge. Nobody outside chambers ever knows which parts you wrote.
Last checked September 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.