Do 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.
The American Bar Association recently released new employment data for the Class of 2025, and thanks to an analysis made by Reuters, we now know which law schools dominated the clerkship market by sending the highest percentage of graduates into federal clerkships.
According to the ABA data, just 3.19% of the class of 2025 found work as federal clerks. In all, 30 schools were responsible for more than half (59%) of all federal clerk hiring, and the 10 law schools that sent the highest percentage of graduates into these clerkships are listed here. Without further ado, these are the top 10 schools for clerkships:
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- Yale: 23.33%
- Chicago: 22.69%
- Stanford: 19.47%
- Notre Dame: 17.07%
- Harvard: 16.61%
- Texas: 14.29%
- Alabama: 12.33%
- Duke: 11.74%
- Washington (St. Louis): 11.72%
- Vanderbilt: 11.31%
You can access the full list by clicking here.
Yale might have lost its No. 1 spot at the top of the U.S. News law school rankings, but the school is still pulling its weight when it comes to clerkship placements. The Ivy League school elbowed Chicago out of the way, after the Windy City school reigned in this ranking for four out of the last five years. Stanford still clocked in at the top of the heap for the class of 2025, sending just under 20% of its graduates to elite clerkships.
An obvious point to make here is that these rankings don’t distinguish between prestige of clerkship. Were these judges the ABA determined to be “qualified” or “not qualified,” 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 federal clerkships are, we’d absolutely love to see this information. If you have it, please feel free to email us.
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Congratulations to all of these law schools on helping their graduates get federal clerkships. Check back with us next year to see if Yale is able to hold onto the top spot.
These law schools sent the most grads to coveted clerkships in 2025 [Reuters]
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.