How to Get a Judicial Clerkship: Timeline, OSCAR and Applications

A judicial clerkship is a fixed-term job with a court, and its shape is the first thing to understand before you apply: the Bureau of Labor Statistics describes judicial clerkships as typically 1- or 2-year terms that some graduates take before working as a lawyer.

You are applying for a defined chapter — a year or two inside a court — not an open-ended position.

Everything about the application, from timing to materials, follows from that shape.

Both current students and graduates apply, but on different calendars.

The Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan sets the student timeline, and it is built around applicants who have two full years of law school grades.

Law graduates sit outside the plan, and judges can hire them on their own schedule.

Know which side of that line you are on before anything else, because it decides when you can apply.

The scale is worth knowing too: NALP measured judicial clerkships at 10.0% of Class of 2025 jobs, part of the 31.0% of that class's jobs that went to public service overall — government, clerkships and public interest combined.

What a judicial law clerk actually does day to day is its own question — our law clerk career guide covers the role in depth.

This page stays on the application itself: where to apply, when, and with what.

The first fork in the application process is the court system itself, because federal and state clerkships are applied for through different machinery.

Get the fork right and the rest of the timeline makes sense; get it wrong and you can spend a season watching a system that was never going to carry the job you want.

Federal clerkships have federal machinery of their own.

OSCAR is the federal judiciary's online system where clerkship and staff attorney positions are posted and where applicants apply, with new positions added weekly.

The dates federal judges follow are set by the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan, which fixes when applications may be accepted and when judges may interview candidates and make offers.

State-court clerkships sit outside that machinery.

The Hiring Plan is the federal judiciary's plan and OSCAR is the federal judiciary's online system — neither is a state court's source for hiring.

For a state clerkship, the court itself is the source of truth: its hiring notices are where the process and the timing live.

Our research found no verified state-by-state timeline for state-court clerkship applications to summarize here, so treat any generic state-court timeline you come across as unverified.

Practically, the fork is a decision to make early: which courts, and why.

A useful test — could you write one honest paragraph about why a specific court interests you?

If yes, that court belongs on your list.

If the honest answer is nowhere yet, spend the time on that question before spending any on formatting applications.

For federal clerkships the calendar is public and fixed.

The Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan — the plan published on OSCAR's website, updated December 16, 2025 — sets the dates by class year, and both the application window and the offer window move together.

Class of 2027: judges could not accept applications before noon EDT on Monday, June 8, 2026, or interview candidates or make offers before noon EDT on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 — that window has already opened.

Any clerkship offer a judge makes under the plan must stay open for at least 24 hours.

Class of 2028 — students who entered law school in 2025: applications open at noon EDT on Monday, June 14, 2027, and contacts, interviews and offers open at noon EDT on Tuesday, June 15, 2027.

Two boundaries of the plan matter as much as the dates inside it.

It covers students with two full years of grades, which is why each window sits where it does in the law school calendar.

And it does not apply to law school graduates, whom judges can accept applications from, interview, and hire on their own schedule.

Map your own class year to its window, then prepare for that window a full season ahead — the days between applications opening and offers beginning leave no time to build materials from scratch.

OSCAR is the federal judiciary's online system for clerkship hiring: clerkship and staff attorney positions are posted there, new positions are added weekly, and applicants apply through the system.

If you are pursuing a federal clerkship as a student, OSCAR is where to watch for postings — and each posting's own instructions tell you how to apply.

The weekly posting cadence is the detail that should shape how you use it.

Positions do not all appear at once — each week's update can carry new openings — so the practical workflow is to have your account and profile ready before your window opens, then check the postings regularly through it.

Seeing a posting the week it appears, rather than weeks later, is what the weekly habit is for.

Keep OSCAR's scope precise as well: it carries the federal judiciary's clerkship and staff attorney postings.

For a state-court clerkship, the court's own hiring notices — not the federal plan — tell you how and when to apply.

Start from the plan's own scope: it covers students with two full years of grades, so a transcript showing both years belongs in your file.

Our research has no verified checklist of what every federal judge requires in an application, so treat what follows as preparation, not rule — a posting's instructions, where a posting lists them, are the requirements that count.

The file worth having ready before your window opens:

• Your transcript. The plan's timing is built on two full years of grades, so have a current copy ready the day applications open.
• A writing sample. Pick one piece of your best legal writing, at whatever length a posting asks for — or your strongest work if none is specified.
• References. Ask early. The people who can speak to your research and writing need time to say yes well, and a request made the week the window opens is a request made under pressure.
• Resume and cover letter. Draft both for the court you are applying to, not for a generic reader — and put the specifics in: why this court, why this judge, why now.

One habit ties the file together: build it once, keep it current, and reuse it across courts.

The plan's window is short, and the state courts you also apply to will each have their own asks — a single well-kept file is what lets you answer any of them quickly.

The endgame moves quickly.

For the Class of 2027, the plan barred interviews and offers before noon EDT on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 — the same week applications opened.

For the Class of 2028, contacts, interviews and offers begin at noon EDT on Tuesday, June 15, 2027.

Prepare for interviews before your window opens rather than during it: the useful days are the ones between the posting and the call, and they are not days you can borrow after the fact.

When an offer comes, the plan gives you room to decide, but not unlimited room: an offer must stay open for at least 24 hours.

That rule is the reason to walk into the window with your decision already framed — knowing which courts you would accept from immediately, which you would want a day to think over, and whose advice you would want before saying yes.

Making those calls during a 24-hour clock is harder than making them before it starts.

Graduates are on a different clock altogether: the plan's dates do not apply to them, and judges can hire graduates on their own schedule.

If your class year's window has passed, a federal clerkship has not necessarily passed with it — the path is a direct application outside the plan's calendar, and each judge's timing is that judge's own.

The application is the same craft either way: a record that speaks, writing that holds up, and a reason for that court.

Career information, not legal advice. Clerkship timing and application requirements are the plan's and each court's own to set — confirm current Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan dates on OSCAR's website, and a state court's process with that court.