Left to Right: SCOTUS Panel – Greg Miller (’12), Professor Tejas Narechania, Linda Lye (’99), Easha Anand (’14) & Eric Stern (CDO)
Clerkship Application Checklist 101
- Know applicable hiring timeline.
- For the Class of 2021 applying to federal clerkships: the timeline is available here.
- State/international court clerkship timelines vary.
- Decide which judges you are applying to.
- Check hiring availability for federal judges on OSCAR.
- Fill out the Clerkship Candidate Questionnaire.
- Request letters of recommendation.
- Identify and edit your writing sample to perfection.
- Draft cover letters.
- Perfect your clerkship resume.
- Obtain your transcripts.
- Apply!
The CDO’s Judicial Clerkship Office is here to help!
Familiarize yourself with the Judicial Clerkship Database (JCDB)
Students (and alums) should be familiar with the new JCDB which is contained within the B-Line, our on-line jobs database. Students should log-in to the B-Line, where they will click on the “Clerkships” tab to access the new JCDB. (Alums who need an alumni B-Line account should send a request to us at career@law.berkeley.edu.)
The primary function of the JCDB is to allow clerkship applicants to create a list of the judges to whom they will be submitting paper applications.
- Interview Evaluations: Within the “Clerkships” tab of the JCDB, you can find over 400 evaluations written by students about their interviewing experiences with particular judges. Click on the “Interview Evaluations” tab to review.
- Paper Clerkship Application Guide: This guide provides detailed instructions on how to build a judge research list, review clerkship hiring information in OSCAR, and build a paper judge list utilizing the JCDB. You should read this guide before reading our OSCAR Quick Guide.
- Final Paper Judge List Template
- Modified Paper Judge List Mail Merge Template for Federal Clerkships (to be used by applicants who are working with outside recommenders who have no administrative support; ALL applicant cover letters, and judge & return address labels)
- Paper Judge List Mail Merge Template for State Court Clerkship
- Faculty Recommender and Faculty Support Unit (FSU) Directory
- Cover Letter Mail Merge Template