How To Become An Attorney Law Clerk: What It Is and Career Path

What is an attorney law clerk and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Frank Alcock Ph.D.,

Jennifer Brobst

An attorney law clerk is a legal professional who provides administrative support to judges and lawyers. His/her primary role is to assist in legal research, analysis, and writing reports to help the judge or lawyer make informed legal decisions on defense or prosecution cases. Other roles include completing paperwork, filing legal documents, compiling case materials, and answering phone calls and emails.

An attorney law clerk works alongside other legal staff and reports directly to the legal assistant. To be successful in this role, you should have extensive knowledge about the law and court proceedings, have administrative skills, research skills, communication skills, and excellent writing skills.

Attorney law clerks usually work hours a week from Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. The role is entry-level and mostly undertaken by law students.

What general advice would you give to an attorney law clerk?

Frank Alcock Ph.D.

Director of Academic Initiatives and Special Projects, Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies, New College of Florida

You're just beginning on what will hopefully be a long and rewarding journey. Career paths are less stable and more turbulent than they were a decade ago, so understand this at the outset. You may find yourself moving into a well-defined career path that you enjoy and that's great. But professional versatility is becoming an increasingly important asset. Versatility will build over time as you cultivate more skills and experiences. Lifelong learning will continue to be indispensable so always look for opportunities to learn from your setbacks as well as your successes. And embrace your future. It won't be boring.

ScoreAttorney Law ClerkUS Average

Salary

7.9

Avg. Salary $112,527

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.3

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.33%

Asian 10.26%

Black or African American 9.38%

Hispanic or Latino 17.76%

Unknown 7.95%

White 54.31%

Gender

female 46.47%

male 53.53%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

5.3

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.7

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.8

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an attorney law clerk

Explore attorney law clerk education requirements

Most common attorney law clerk degrees

Doctorate

46.5 %

Bachelor's

46.3 %

Master's

4.4 %

Start to develop specific attorney law clerk skills

Skills	Percentages
Litigation	16.83%
Discovery Responses	12.57%
Settlement Agreements	5.00%
Pre-Trial Motions	4.91%
Legal Issues	4.08%

Complete relevant attorney law clerk training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New attorney law clerks learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an attorney law clerk based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real attorney law clerk resumes.

Research attorney law clerk duties and responsibilities

Draft motions, answers, memos, subpoenas, and client letters for a criminal defense attorney.
Conduct a general civil and commercial litigation practice, providing co- representation to either plaintiff or defendant parties in civil litigation.
Draft various motions, interrogatories, letters, memorandum, petitions, and jury charges in both civil and legal fields.
Draft real estate documents, wills and trusts, interrogatories, requests for admissions, and answers and objections to discovery.

Prepare your attorney law clerk resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your attorney law clerk resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an attorney law clerk resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable attorney law clerk resume templates

Build a professional attorney law clerk resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your attorney law clerk resume.

Apply for attorney law clerk jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an attorney law clerk job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do attorney law clerks rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Attorney law clerk reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2019

Pros

As a civil litigation defense attorney I love the fact that every day is different. I enjoy assisting clients who have a problem to solve that problem in the most cost effective way, and how to avoid such problems in the future. I like that I basically set my own work schedule (other than court dates).

Cons

Billing hours. Unscrupulous opposing counsel. Occasional biased judges who do not follow the law.