IMPORTANT 2013 Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan Date Change! -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Sunday, May 12 2013
The OSCAR Working Group judges announced that they have decided to move up the first date when applications may be received from third-year applicants (Class of 2014) from August 19, 2013 to June 28, 2013 and "revert to a single date to receive applications, schedule and conduct interviews, and make clerkship offers."

The OSCAR system will release all online third-year law school student applications on:
June 28, 2013 at 12:00 pm Noon (EDT).

This is now the first date to receive applications from third-year law school applicants. Judges may schedule and conduct interviews and make clerkship offers on that date to third-year law school applicants.

The judges reiterated that: "the Hiring Plan does not cover applicants who have graduated from law school. Judges may accept applications, interview, and hire law school graduates at any time."

(See https://oscar.uscourts.gov/)

IMPORTANT Update on the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Friday, February 22 2013
The Judges on D.C. Court of Appeals have officially split from the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan! See
Notice Regarding Law Clerk Hiring By D.C. Circuit Judges for the 2014-2015 Term.

Note that although NALP supports the FLCHP and encourages judges to continue to follow its timing guidelines, NALP acknowledges that:

"A growing number of federal judges have chosen not to participate in the voluntary plan. As a result, some law schools have elected to facilitate the applications of students applying to off-plan judges. NALP understands that each law school must apply its own policies and rules for assuring that the recruiting activities involving its own students are as fair as possible." See NALP Guidelines.

Several commentators view these recent developments as the end of the FLCHP. Stay tuned!

Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan for 2013 -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Friday, February 8 2013

Here are the Critical Dates For the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan, 2013 Season:

First date when applications may be received from third-year applicants:
Monday, August 19, 2013
(12 noon EDT)

First date and time when judges may contact third-year applicants to schedule interviews:
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
(12 noon EDT)

First date and time when interviews may be held and offers made:
Monday, September 9, 2013
(10:00 a.m. EDT)

For more information, see https://oscar.uscourts.gov/

Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan for 2012 -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Sunday, February 5 2012

Here are the Critical Dates For the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan, 2012 Season:

First date when applications may be received from third-year applicants:
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
(12 noon EDT)

First date and time when judges may contact third-year applicants to schedule interviews:
Friday, September 7, 2012
(12 noon EDT)

First date and time when interviews may be held and offers made:
Thursday, September 13, 2012
(10:00 a.m. EDT)

For more information on the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan, please visit the new website maintained by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts at
https://oscar.uscourts.gov/drupal/content/federal-law-clerk-hiring-plan.

If you are interested in statistics on OSCAR use both within and outside of the Judiciary, including total number of judges participating in OSCAR, total number of positions posted during the fiscal year, and number of applications submitted, or to find out more about the OSCAR program, see this article published in the December 2011 edition of The Third Branch newsletter:
http://www.uscourts.gov/News/TheThirdBranch/11-12-01/OSCAR_More_Popular_Than_Ever.aspx.

Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan for 2011 -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Sunday, February 6 2011

Here are the Critical Dates For the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan, 2011 Season:

First date when applications may be received:
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
(OSCAR release: 10:00 a.m. (EDT))

First date and time when judges may contact applicants to schedule interviews:
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. (EDT)

First date and time when interviews may be held and offers made:
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. (EDT)

For more information, see http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/lawclerk.nsf/Home?OpenForm

Best wishes to everyone!

Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan for 2009 -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Thursday, January 8 2009

Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan 2008 -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Wednesday, February 20 2008

Here are the critical dates for Fall 2008:

First date when applications may be received:  Wednesday, Sept 3

First date and time when judges may contact applicants to schedule interviews:  Monday, Sept 8, Noon (EDT)

First date and time when interviews may be held and offers made:  Thursday, Sept 11, 8:00 am (EDT) 

For more information, see the official website:

http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/lawclerk.nsf/Home?OpenForm

Best of luck, everyone!

New article on clerkship interview frenzy -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Tuesday, October 16 2007

"Law Students Navigate Interviews and Cross-Country Travel to Get a Clerkship"

Joe Palazzolo
Legal Times
October 16, 2007

http://www.law.com/jsp/law/careercenter/lawArticleCareerCenter.jsp?id=1192439006187

Law Clerk Hiring Plan for 2007 -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Friday, November 10 2006

Here are the critical dates for Fall 2007:

First date when applications may be received:  Tuesday, September 4, 2007

First date and time when judges may contact applicants to schedule interviews: Noon (EDT), Tuesday, September 11, 2007

First date when interviews may be held and offers made:  Wednesday, September 19, 2007

For more information, see the official website:

http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/lawclerk.nsf/Home?OpenForm

New Student Lawyer Article -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Monday, October 9 2006

Here's a new article on clerkships with a focus on the opportunities in the state courts:

Schneider, Deborah, “Judicial Clerkships for Everyone,” Student Lawyer, Vol. 34, No. 10 (American Bar Association Publishing, Oct. 2006), online at http://www.abanet.org/lsd/studentlawyer/oct06/clerkships.shtml

SUPREME COURT MEMO: Women Suddenly Scarce Among Justices' Clerks -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Sunday, September 3 2006

Everyone knows that with the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the number of female Supreme Court justices fell by half. The talk of the court this summer, with the arrival of the new crop of law clerks, is that the number of female clerks has fallen even more sharply.

Just under 50 percent of new law school graduates in 2005 were women. Yet women account for only 7 of the 37 law clerkships for the new term, the first time the number has been in the single digits since 1994, when there were 4,000 fewer women among the country’s new law school graduates than there are today.

To read the complete article, or to post a reaction, go to the forums at:

http://www.judicialclerkships.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2049#post2049

This article was originally printed at:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/linda_greenhouse/index.html?inline=nyt-per

Judges not participating in OSCAR this year -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Thursday, July 13 2006

For those of you confused by the notation on OSCAR of participating judges who are not accepting applications this year, here is additional information.  The NALP Judicial Clerkship Committee's OSCAR Working Group has called these judges and put together a chart with the details:

http://www.nalp.org/assets/410_oscarjudgesnothiring.pdf

A few updates on OSCAR are periodically listed on the NALP website here.

For additional information on these and other OSCAR issues, you can also check out our ongoing discussion at the Forums.

Interesting Article Online -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Tuesday, August 30 2005

FYI, here is an interesting new feature article on clerkships:

Furi-Perry, Ursula, “Working in Chambers: Judicial Clerkships Provide a Unique Career Experience,” LawCrossing.com, Aug. 22, 2005, online here.

UPDATE on OSCAR -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Monday, June 6 2005

The list of participating judges is up -- click here to view!

Note also the updated FAQs, particularly these interesting facts:

Q. How many judges will be participating in OSCAR during the pilot year?
"The current number of judges signed up is 258 (as of May 24, 2005). Judges ha[d] until May 31, 2005 to sign up." 
 

Applying for Judicial Clerkships Online: The Online System for Clerkship Application and Review (OSCAR) -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Thursday, March 24 2005

FYI, a group of federal courts, with the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, has contracted with Symplicity to create the Online System for Clerkship Application and Review. As part of the development process, the Administrative Office has prepared "A First Look at OSCAR" which includes answers to some frequently asked questions. This information is currently accessible on the NALP website at www.nalp.org/schools/oscar.pdf.

Here is some of the background info provided:

"The Online System for Clerkship Application and Review (OSCAR) is a pilot project funded by a grant through the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. For the Fall 2005 hiring season, OSCAR will offer an internet-based application system permitting applicants to file their federal clerkship application materials online and designate those judges to whom they wish to apply. Federal judges and chambers staff will be able to read, sort, and manage those applications on-screen; they will also be able to download and print those applications. OSCAR will allow letters of recommendation to be placed confidentially in applicants' online files, either directly by the recommender, or through the applicant’s law school.

. . . OSCAR is still in development, and will be reevaluated at the end of the pilot year. . ."

The contract calls for the system to go live on April 15, 2005. Federal judges are currently being surveyed to determine their participation in OSCAR, and the final number is not yet known. In June 2005, participating judges will be posted on the Federal Law Clerk Information System https://lawclerks.ao.uscourts.gov.

You can go to www.dcd.uscourts.gov/OSCAR.html, where you may take a look at OSCAR and review the answers to Frequently Asked Questions. 

Here is an additional website with technical info from the company that has been developing OSCAR: https://oscar.symplicity.com/

For additional information or to comment, go to the Forums here.

Federal Judges Law Clerk Hiring Plan for 2005 and 2006 -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Friday, January 7 2005

Update on WESTLAW databases. . . the saga continues -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Thursday, July 22 2004

Here is the latest information from the WLD Team Lead supervisor at Findlaw (which has taken over the Westlaw databases, as per my previous post below): "I've done some inquiries into the WLD-CLERK database on Westlaw. It appears that we have not been updating this database for a number of years.  According to our product team, there are no plans to solicit for this data, now or in the future. Therefore they have decided to remove this database from Westlaw. I didn't get a date as to when the WLD-CLERK database would be removed, but it sound as if they are going to do it very soon."

My translation:  As I suspected, someone has indeed let the information in this database lapse and, now that it has been brought to their attention, they are pulling the plug on WLD-CLERK.  As unfortunate as that is, we are better off knowing it than relying on inaccurate information.  For instance, a student may search the database for past law clerk hires from his or her school and, finding none, decide not to apply based on the mistaken belief that the judges are not hiring from that school.  (But hopefully the student will have read my book and so not make the mistake of selecting him/herself out of the process. . .)

The Findlaw supervisor continues:
"The WLD-JUDGE database is still currently being updated and will remain active. We do a complete update of this database once a year for the Federal level and high-level State judges and courts, with occasional updates throughout the year."

My translation:  They are probably not actively soliciting information from the judges for the WLD-JUDGE database either.  Instead, they are using another source to update once a year (or as major changes occur, like new appointments).  It sounds to me like this is now only a secondary source of basic information on the judges.  As a result, I will not be highly recommending this resource in the next edition of my book.

See more details below and in the forums discussion board.

WESTLAW and LEXIS: The Shrinking World of Judicial Clerkship Resources -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Wednesday, July 14 2004

 As you may not be aware, there have been some very recent changes in WESTLAW and LEXIS.  I am still investigating the ramifications, but want to alert you all right away, especially for those of you who may be trying to do some of the searches described in the book:

WESTLAW --

In the last few weeks, WESTLAW has merged with FINDLAW, and the people at FINDLAW are still getting familiar with the databases they are now designated to maintain.  However, here's the current situation:  The WLD-CLERK database doesn't seem to be working fully. The field for past and present law clerks (law school attended, etc.) still appears on the template but is not searchable. Unfortunately, someone seems to have let this valuable information lapse. The people at FINDLAW are checking and will get back to me, but it looks like the information may also be old -- WESTLAW/FINDLAW may not even be actively soliciting any information (not just as to law clerks) from the judges, as they had done in the past for these databases -- WLD-CLERK and/or WLD-JUDGE.  There is also no sign of The Judicial Yellow Book, which used to be on WESTLAW in addition to the printed version.  I'll post additional info here, as I get it. 

In addition,  on WESTLAW the database AFJ, which contains the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, is no longer current.  It has archived information through 2002, but is no longer being updated.  (A subscription is required through Aspen Publishing.)  Hopefully, the printed version should still be available at your law school. 

LEXIS --

More bad news: I checked the most recent status of the alternate source of this information on LEXIS and found out that they have removed the few remaining databases there with info as to judges, clerkships, and law clerks. As I have posted in the past, NALP recently discontinued the NALP State Judicial Clerkship Directory. Now LEXIS has removed the following databases: JCLERK (Judicial Clerkship Directory), the NALP Archived Judicial Clerkship Directories (ARCHV B), the NALP Judicial Clerkship Directory, and even the NALP National Directory of Legal Employers!  (Note that the last one, the NALP National Directory of Legal Employers, is now available on WESTLAW.)  The Judicial Staff Directory, which had also been on LEXIS in the JUDDIR database, is no longer carried there and the old archives (yes, I even asked about them) have been "removed by the publisher." So, there are no (even non-NALP) sources of info on judges or clerkships on LEXIS! 

NOTE:  You can still use LEXIS and WESTLAW to search for judicial opinions and general news articles. 

For further discussion on this and other issues, go to the forums.  For additional resources and guidance on how best to use them, see the links page here and chapters six, seven, and thirteen in Behind the Bench: The Guide to Judicial Clerkships.

New Article on Clerkships -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Monday, March 1 2004
FYI, I have a new article on clerkships coming out in the latest issue of the Student Lawyer magazine: Strauss, Debra M., “Judge for Yourself,” Student Lawyer, Vol. 32, No. 7, pp. 24-30 (American Bar Association Publishing, March 2004).  Regardless of what you might assume, judicial clerkship opportunities are available to all students. Find out how to begin pursuing one, whether you're in your first, second, or final year of law school--or even beyond.

Deans support 2004 Law Clerk Hiring Plan -- Posted by clerkship_guru on Sunday, January 11 2004

The American Law Deans Association, meeting for breakfast in Atlanta on January 3, voted unanimously to endorse the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Law Clerk Hiring and agreed to abide by the Law Clerk Hiring Plan for 2004.  (See description of the new plan below.)