The Clerkship Committee maintains records of all students who are applying for clerkships. If you are interested in pursuing a clerkship, please complete the form linked below and return it to the Career Services Office.
Clerkship Application Timeline
RESOURCE AND REFERENCE MATERIALS
HANDOUT: Judicial Clerkship Resource and Reference Materials, including a list of judges and courts that have recently hired BC students, available in Career Services Offices. Click here for a link to the list of judges and courts that have recently hired BC students.
LEXIS/NEXIS:
Judicial Appointments and Nominations: LEXIS has an extensive library of legal and non-legal trade papers, magazines and newspapers and is an excellent source of articles abut a particular judge, curt, or case. It is particularly helpful in finding information on newly appointed or nominated judges
To search for recent appointments and nominations use the following search in the News, All database: judicial pre/2 (nomin! or appoint! or confirm!). Consider adding a date restriction to narrow your results.
Judicial Legal Writings (Besides Opinions): Judicial legal writings can be found in the U.S. Law Reviews and Journals, Combined database. Use the AUTHOR segment to search for articles written by a specific judge.
Judicial Opinions: Lexis allows a researcher to find opinions written by a specific judge. To find opinions: Locate the database with the narrowest coverage for the court. Run a terms and connectors search using the WRITTENBY segment.
WESTLAW:
Judicial Profiles: West Legal Directory (WLD - Judges) offers office profiles and profiles of individual full-time judges from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Judicial Legal Writings (Besides Opinions): Judicial legal writings can be found in the Journals & Law Reviews (JLR) database. Use the Author - AU ( ) field to search for articles written by a specific judge.
Judicial Opinions: Westlaw allows a researcher to find opinions written by a specific judge. Locate the database with the narrowest coverage for the court. Run a terms and connectors search using the Judge - JU ( ), Concurring - CON ( ), or Dissenting - DIS ( ) fields.
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO STATE JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP PROCEDURES: http://www.vermontlaw.edu/career/index.cfm?doc_id=94. Published by the Vermont Public Interest Action Project, Vermont Law School. This GUIDE includes current information on the application procedures, timing, salary and hiring process for judicial clerkships in all fifty states. To recevie the username and password you must contact the Career Services office.
JUDICIAL YELLOWBOOK: Who's Who in Federal and State Courts, published each Spring and Fall: This resource contains the names, addresses and biographical information about judges on the US Supreme Court, US Court of Appeals, US District Court, and US Courts of Limited Jurisdiction. It also contains information on state supreme courts and courts of appeals. Also review older volumes for historical purposes. Available in the Career Services Office.
THE AMERICAN BENCH, editor, Coreen DeTuro: A comprehensive directory combining biographical information on judges from all levels of federal and state courts with jurisdictional information on the courts they serve. Available in the Law Library.
ALLIANCE FOR JUSTICE: JUDICIAL SELECTION RESOURCES, www.allianceforjustice.org/judicial/judicial_selection_resources/index.html contains demographic lists and tables of sitting federal judges based on categories such as the appointing president, ethnicity, and gender, as well as reports on nominations and the confirmation process.
THE THIRD BRANCH: BULLETIN OF THE FEDERAL COURTS: This is a periodical received monthly at the Law Library. The Personnel Section contains information on nominations, confirmations, appointments and evaluations and senior status among members of the federal judiciary.
JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP INFORMATION CRATE: Letters from judges and courts requesting clerkship applications. This information can be found in the clerkship crate and also in binders. Available in the Career Services Office.
JUDICIAL STAFF DIRECTORY. This Directory lists 15,000 judges and staff who run the Federal Courts, the Circuit Courts of Appeal, District Courts and Bankruptcy Courts. Also included are 1,900 biographies of Federal Circuit and District Court Judges, Magistrates, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judges. Available in the Law Library
JUDGES OF THE UNITED STATES: Provides addresses and telephone numbers of all judges and administrative staff of the federal court system. Updated annually on microfiche. Available in the Law Library.
BEHIND THE BENCH by Debra Strauss: This good, recent book regarding all steps of the process was written by a former federal clerk who was the Judicial Clerkship Counselor at Yale Law School. The book has a companion website: www.judicialclerkships.com
USEFUL WEB SITES:
www.nalp.org under Resource Center > Toolkit for Career Services (and also under Career Paths > JD Jobseekers) - online brochure to "The Courts: An Excellent Place for Attorneys of Color to Launch Their Careers"
http://lawschoolclerkship.blogspot.com
Federal:
https://oscar.symplicity.com/: On-line System for Clerkship Application and Review (OSCAR)
http://www.uscourts.gov/ --Web site of the Federal Judiciary.
http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/search_db_sybase!OpenForm&BaseTarget=right
http://www.fjc.gov --Federal Judicial Center
https://lawclerks.ao.uscourts.gov --Federal Law Clerk Information System established by the Judicial Conference of the United States. Federal judges post judicial clerkship vacancies.
http://judiciary.senate.gov --United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary - tracks judicial nominations and confirmations
http://www.fedjudge.org --The Federal Magistrate Judges Association
http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/lawclerk --Provides information on the Law Clerk Hiring Plan.
www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/lawclerk.nsf/content/home?openform: Federal judges law clerk hiring plan for 2008.
www.allianceforjustice.org/judicial/judicial_selection_resources/index.html: Alliance for Justice: Judicial Selection Resources. Demographic lists and tables of sitting federal judges.
http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/ - Homepage for USDC Massachusetts
http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/nominations.htm - Check on status of judicial openings and new appointments
http://www.uscourts.gov/cfapps/webnovada/CF_FB_301/index.cfm?fuseaction=Reports.ListReports - Check on status of judicial openings and new appointments
State:
http://www.state.ma.us/courts --The MA Judicial Branch
http://www.ncsconline.org--National Center for State Courts.
http://www.vermontlaw.edu/blank_template.cfm?doc_id=94 --Guide to State Judicial Clerkships - Contact the Career Services Office for the password.
http://www.whohascourtjobs.com -- a publication from the National Center for State Courts with state-by-state listings of support staff and staff attorney jobs.