In the United States, a law clerk is a person who assists a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. Those unfamiliar with court operations often incorrectly assume that a law clerk is a court clerk, essentially a secretary for the court. The hiring of law clerks is particularly prevalant among federal judges and state appellate judges. Federal district judges traditionally have two law clerks, who are generally hired for a one-year term, but in some cases are hired for a two-year term. Judges on the United States Court of Appeals are allotted three clerks apiece each year. Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are entitled to hire four law clerks for each term of the court. The Chief Justice is allowed five law clerks. Most applicants for clerkship to the Supreme Court have worked previously as clerks for judges on the federal courts of appeals.
Working as a judicial law clerk at any level of government is generally considered to be a prestigious occupation within the legal field. It tells others in the legal profession that an individual came out of law school with enough competence and legal intelligence to earn a judge's trust and heavily influence his or her decisions. Working as a law clerk generally opens up vast career opportunities.
Qualifications
Most law clerks are recent law school graduates who were at the very top of their class, or who graduated from the most prestigious law schools. Judges often require that applicants for law clerk positions have experience with law review or moot court.
Because of the selection criteria, many notable legal figures, professors, and judges were law clerks before achieving greatness in other areas of the law.
Five Supreme Court Justices previously clerked for other Supreme Court Justices. Associate Justice Byron White clerked for Chief Justice Frederick M. Vinson. Associate Justice John Paul Stevens clerked for Associate Justice Wiley Rutledge. Associate Justice Stephen Breyer clerked for Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chief Justice John Roberts clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist when Rehnquist was still an Associate Justice. Rehnquist himself had previously clerked for Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson.
Some judges seek to hire law clerks who not only have excelled academically but also share the judge's ideological orientation. However, this occurs mostly at the level of some state supreme courts and the United States Supreme Court. Law clerks can have a great deal of influence on the judges with whom they work. In Brad Meltzer's novel The Tenth Justice, the title character is actually a highly influential Supreme Court law clerk.
Upon completing a judicial clerkship, a federal law clerk can expect that elite law firms will pay a handsome premium to hire him or her.