Clerkships, Law Schools

The 20 Best Law Schools For Getting Federal Clerkships

Do you like prestige? Of course you do. These law schools will help you get the most prestigious jobs.

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gavel with American flagDo you like prestige? Of course you do. Is there really a law student who doesn’t? That being said, if you’re like the majority of your colleagues and you’d like to embark upon one of the most prestigious career paths available to recent law school graduates, then you’ll probably want to compete for an elite federal clerkship.

But will your law school pedigree allow you to achieve such heights? Luckily for you, the National Law Journal produced several helpful charts based on law school employment data for the class of 2015, and one of them lists the 20 schools that sent the highest percentage of their most recent graduating class into federal clerkships.

On this list, you’ll find a dazzling array of law schools from the T14 (with Columbia, NYU, Cornell, and Georgetown strangely absent), but we’re not here to tell you what you already know — that graduates of top law schools get top clerkships. We’re going to dive a little deeper into the list and highlight the schools you may not realize are some of the top clerkship contenders. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

  • 6. UC Irvine Law: 12.73 percent employed in federal clerkships
  • 10. Vanderbilt Law: 10.27 percent employed in federal clerkships
  • 12. Texas Law: 8.47 percent employed in federal clerkships
  • 13. Notre Dame Law: 8.38 percent employed in federal clerkships
  • 14. Alabama Law: 8.33 percent employed in federal clerkships
  • 15. Iowa Law: 8.22 percent employed in federal clerkships
  • 16. Kentucky Law: 7.86 percent employed in federal clerkships
  • 17. Montana Law: 7.32 percent employed in federal clerkships
  • 19. Georgia Law: 6.28 percent employed in federal clerkships
  • 20. William & Mary Law: 6.18 percent employed in federal clerkships

Click here to see the rest of the law schools with the highest percentage of graduates employed in federal clerkships, as well as other informative charts detailing the law schools with the highest percentage of graduates working in Biglaw, state clerkships, government jobs, and, of course, the schools with the most unemployed graduates.

An obvious point to make here is that these rankings don’t distinguish between prestige of clerkship. Were these feeder judges or non-feeder judges, circuit courts or district courts, Article III courts or non-Article III courts? In the land of law, these things are important. Considering how coveted clerkships are, we’d love to see this information.

Are you a recent law school graduate who landed a federal clerkship? What did your law school do to help you? We’re interested in learning about your experiences — good or bad — and may anonymously feature some of your stories on Above the Law. You can email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog. Best of luck in your clerkship!

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Law Grad Employment Rates Up, But Class Size Is Smaller [National Law Journal]

Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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