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 2023, the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Timeline can be found here.
- For the Class of 2022 and earlier classes, check OSCAR for federal clerkship openings.
- State/international court clerkship timelines vary; check the State Court Resources page for resources, and specific courts’ websites for dates.
- Request letters of recommendation (typically you will need three).
- To help your recommenders, fill out and provide them with your Clerkship Candidate Questionnaire.
- Identify and perfect your writing sample.
- Draft cover letter(s).
- For best accuracy, use the court addresses listed here for federal judges.
- Perfect your clerkship resume.
- Obtain your transcripts.
- Apply!
- Applications typically take 3 forms: OSCAR (online), e-mail, or paper. If you apply to judges who take applications by e-mail or paper, please follow the Non-OSCAR Judge List instructions.
The CDO’s Judicial Clerkship Office is here to help!
Familiarize yourself with the b-Line Resource: 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. Also, 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.