Imagine this. You grab a cup of coffee and head to the court. With enough coffee flowing through your veins, you're now ready to chat with the judge about legal questions, granting orders and even the construction of documents. Who are you? You're a law clerk and this is just the beginning of your day.
The rest of your day may be spent going through complaints, looking at petitions or motions, and even reading through pleadings so you can help develop a case. Then, you need to type up some judicial opinions, decisions, or citations. There's lots of work to do as a law clerk, so you need to be organized so you don't waste a single minute.
As a law clerk, you'll probably spend a lot of time with judges. You're there to provide assistance on legal determinations while also writing up research-based opinions that are relevant to the court. The best part of becoming a law clerk is that you don't have to wait very long to become one. You could be a student by day and a law clerk by night. Unless you have night classes, in which case it might be switched.
Law Clerk Overview
Law Clerk Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a law clerk. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.77 an hour? That's $53,594 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 50,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Law Clerk Do
There are certain skills that many law clerks have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, computer skills and interpersonal skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a law clerk, we found that a lot of resumes listed 10.6% of law clerks included discovery responses, while 10.0% of resumes included legal advice, and 8.3% of resumes included legal documents. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the law clerk job title. But what industry to start with? Most law clerks actually find jobs in the professional and non profits industries.
How To Become a Law Clerk
If you're interested in becoming a law clerk, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 15.9% of law clerks have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.5% of law clerks have master's degrees. Even though most law clerks have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a law clerk. When we researched the most common majors for a law clerk, we found that they most commonly earn doctoral degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on law clerk resumes include master's degree degrees or associate degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a law clerk. In fact, many law clerk jobs require experience in a role such as legal extern. Meanwhile, many law clerks also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or judicial internship.
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Law Clerk Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of attorney you might progress to a role such as partner eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title executive vice president.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Law Clerk
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
State of Iowa Law Clerk 1 Law Clerk 1 | State of Iowa State of Iowa | 03/29/2021 03/29/2021 | $50,93903/29/2021 $50,939 |
United States Courts Law Clerk (Term Appointment) Law Clerk (Term Appointment) | United States Courts United States Courts | 03/27/2021 03/27/2021 | $64,64903/27/2021 $64,649 |
Minnesota Judicial Branch Minnesota Court of Appeals Law Clerk for The Term Minnesota Court of Appeals Law Clerk for The Term | Minnesota Judicial Branch Minnesota Judicial Branch | 03/27/2021 03/27/2021 | $64,58203/27/2021 $64,582 |
Wisconsin Government Law Clerk-Court of Appeals Law Clerk-Court of Appeals | Wisconsin Government Wisconsin Government | 03/25/2021 03/25/2021 | $64,64903/25/2021 $64,649 |
United States Courts Term Law Clerk Term Law Clerk | United States Courts United States Courts | 03/25/2021 03/25/2021 | $70,88303/25/2021 $70,883 |
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Law Clerk Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Law Clerk. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Law Clerk Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Law Clerk resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Law Clerks
1. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
2. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
3. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
4. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
5. Yale University
New Haven, CT • Private
6. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
7. Georgetown University
Washington, DC • Private
8. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Public
9. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
10. University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN • Private
Top Skills For a Law Clerk
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.6% of law clerks listed discovery responses on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and computer skills are important as well.
- Discovery Responses, 10.6%
- Legal Advice, 10.0%
- Legal Documents, 8.3%
- Legal Memos, 6.0%
- Pre-Trial Motions, 4.6%
- Other Skills, 60.5% See All Law Clerk Skills
Best States For a Law Clerk
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a law clerk. The best states for people in this position are New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, and California. Law clerks make the most in New York with an average salary of $71,994. Whereas in Massachusetts and Vermont, they would average $66,958 and $62,564, respectively. While law clerks would only make an average of $58,241 in California, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. District of Columbia
$72,988
Avg. Salary
2. New York
$71,994
Avg. Salary
3. Oregon
$57,744
Avg. Salary
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