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.
STATE Judges Excel Database
OSCAR Federal Judges Excel Database
Non-OSCAR Federal Judges Excel Database
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/x1101.xml. 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 or online through the Law Library & alphabetical list of directories under Leadership Directories.
FEDERAL JUDICIAL CENTER, HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL JUDICARY:
Biographies of the judges of the US Courts, courts of the federal judiciary, landmark judicial legislation, topics in judicial history and historic courthouses. www.fjc.gov.
BEHIND THE BENCH: The Guide to Judicial Clerkships. Debra M. Strauss, Esq. Published by The BarBri Group, Inc., 2002. This book is available in the Career Services Office. The companion website is: www.judicialclerkships.com. See also "Six Simple Rules for Judicial Clerkship Interviewing," Student Lawyer, Vol. 32 No. 2, pp. 32-36 (American Bar Association Publishing, October 2003), available through the ABA Law Student Division. http://www.judicialclerkships.com/JudicialClerkshipInterviewing.htm
JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP QUESTIONNAIRES (BC LAW)
Career Services maintains a binder of judicial clerkship evaluations that current and past BC Law Clerks have completed to detail both their clerkship experience and their interview experience.
THE AMERICAN BENCH, Editor-in-Chief, Diana F. Irvine, Editor, Mary Lee Bliss: A comprehensive directory combining biographical information on judges from all levels of federal and state courts with jurisdictional information on the courts they serve. Includes state trial court and specialized information that is not available online. Published yearly. Available in the Law Library.
THE THIRD BRANCH: BULLETIN OF THE FEDERAL COURTS: This monthly newsletter contains information on Federal judicial nominations, confirmations, appointments and evaluations and status changes in the Judicial Milestones section of each edition. www.uscourts.gov/ttb
THE LAW CLERK HANDBOOK, Second Ed., 2007. See particularly Chapter 4, "Chambers and Case Management," which describes in some detail the operations of district, bankruptcy, and appellate courts. http://www.fjc.gov/library/fjc_catalog.nsf/autoframepage!openform&url=library/fjc_catalog.nsf/DPublication!openform&parentunid=CE672ECA2F716852572D000751A75
JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP INFORMATION BINDERS: Letters from judges and courts requesting clerkship applications. These BINDERS are organized by state. There is also information in the judicial clerkship crates. Available in the Career Services Office.
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.uscourts.gov: 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
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.
http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/ - Homepage for USDC Massachusetts
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.vermontlaw.edu/x1101.xml --Guide to State Judicial Clerkships - Contact the Career Services Office for the password.
http://www.ncsconline.org--National Center for State Courts.
http://www.state.ma.us/courts --The MA Judicial Branch
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.