What should you ask a law clerk in an interview? Questions and what good answers sound like
An employer-side question bank for law firms interviewing law clerks and summer associates — skills questions, behavioral questions, a mock-file exercise, an answer guide for every question, and the questions that are risky to ask.
The questions to ask when hiring a law clerk are the ones that make a candidate show how they work: how they run a research project, what they do when the first search finds nothing, and how they treat a deadline they cannot move.
Below are skills questions, behavioral questions, a mock-file exercise, and what strong and weak answers sound like — plus the questions that are risky or restricted.
The bank is written for firm-side hires: law-student clerks and summer associates, not judicial clerks.
Before the interview
Build the scorecard before the first candidate sits down.
Write down what the clerk must actually produce — research memos, discovery-response drafts, cite-checked briefs, deposition summaries — and how quickly your attorneys will return edits, then start from the law clerk job description you posted: every question below should trace back to a duty on it.
Ask every candidate the same core set, in the same order, so the answers stay comparable.
The full process, from sourcing through onboarding, is our guide to how to hire a law clerk.
If you want a work sample, build the exercise on a mock file.
Federal wage law defines "employ" to include "to suffer or permit to work" (29 U.S.C.
203(g)): a candidate doing real, usable work for the firm — drafting a brief the firm actually files, for instance — may be an employee owed wages.
A short exercise on a fictional file is the safer design.
If you require a test, the EEOC's position is that it must be necessary and related to the job, and must not exclude people of a protected group or people with disabilities.
And if an applicant with a disability needs an accommodation to apply — a sign language interpreter, for example — you are required to provide it so long as it does not cause significant difficulty or expense.
Map availability honestly before you fall for an answer: the class calendar, exam weeks and the term dates are the schedule you are hiring, so confirm the hours you need against the hours the candidate can actually serve.
If your firm titles the role summer associate, the same bank applies — add the term-specific questions (start and end dates, weekly hours, end-of-summer review) and you have your summer associate interview covered.
Two pieces of groundwork before the first interview: know where your jurisdiction lands on salary history and criminal history (the risky-questions section below covers the statutes verified for this page), and know the pay figure you are prepared to offer — in California, an applicant may request the pay scale for a position on reasonable request, whatever the firm's size.
Which skills questions reveal real law clerk experience?
Walk me through a research project you did for a supervisor, a clinic or a journal — where did you start, and how did you know you had enough?
What to listen for: A narrated route, not just a conclusion: the starting source, the search terms, what they tried when the first run failed, and a stated reason for stopping.
Strong candidates can retrace the whole path; weak ones remember the answer but not how they got there.
Tell me about a time your first research run found nothing useful. What did you try next?
What to listen for: Alternative terms, a different type of source, or a clarifying question to the supervising attorney — often the fastest fix — rather than another hour on the same query.
"Nothing came up" with no second move is the weak answer.
A partner asks you to confirm a case is still good law before a filing goes out. What do you actually do?
What to listen for: Run the citator, read the case's later history rather than trusting the headnote, and flag anything arguable back to the attorney instead of quietly keeping it.
The reflex to verify before citing is the skill this question exists to surface.
Tell me about the edits a supervisor made to your best piece of writing. What changed, and what did you change about your own process afterwards?
What to listen for: Named, specific revisions — a tighter issue statement, citations fixed, a structure reordered — and one habit they took from it.
"Honestly, not much" means either a thin sample or a thin memory, and both tell you something.
What kinds of documents have you drafted for a supervisor — memos, discovery responses, correspondence — and which type do you still find hardest?
What to listen for: An honest range plus a specific weak spot with a plan for it.
Vague answers about "all kinds of legal writing" usually mean the drafting so far has been coursework, and the firm should know that going in.
How would you summarize a deposition for a lawyer who has ten minutes before a hearing?
What to listen for: Leads with the admissions and the key denials, cites page and line, fits on a single page, and flags follow-up questions for the attorney.
Structure beats completeness here — the constraint is the point of the question.
Which behavioral questions test judgment, confidentiality and deadlines?
Tell me about a deadline you nearly missed — for a supervisor, a professor, anyone waiting on your work. What happened, and what did you change afterwards?
What to listen for: Ownership without excuses, a specific cause, and a system fix: a calendar with reminders, an earlier checkpoint with the supervising attorney.
"Things got busy" with no fix attached is the weak answer.
How do you decide what you can say about work you have done when you interview somewhere new?
What to listen for: This is a test the right candidate passes by declining.
Strong candidates describe prior work in generalities and protect client confidences; the one who offers up another employer's client list, a settlement figure or a strategy from an active matter is showing you how they would treat yours.
Tell me about a time you were not sure you understood an assignment. When did you say so, and to whom?
What to listen for: They asked early, named the specific point of confusion, and proposed their reading for confirmation rather than silently guessing.
The other weak end is asking about everything without first trying — you want judgment about when to check, not just willingness.
Describe a mistake in work you turned in — a mis-cite, a missed fact, a late draft. Who found it, and what did you do next?
What to listen for: Prompt disclosure, a fix, and a process change so it does not recur.
A candidate whose mistakes are always somebody else's has not done the reflection a reviewed role needs.
Tell me about a stretch when school, a job and legal work all peaked in the same week. How did you decide what got your attention first?
What to listen for: Triage by deadline and consequence, and early escalation — telling the supervising attorney a due date was at risk before it slipped, not after.
Silent overextension is the failure mode; the strong answer includes the moment they asked for help.
What is the hardest feedback you have received on your writing or your work? What did you do with it?
What to listen for: A specific piece of criticism and a specific change it produced — the work you give a clerk gets reviewed, and the review is the job, not an intrusion.
Defensiveness in the retelling is the weak signal.
What practical exercise or test should a law clerk complete?
Set a closed-universe research exercise: a one-page fictional fact pattern plus a packet of sources — a statute, two or three cases, at least one of which cuts against the obvious answer — and ask for a short memo or a walk-through of the research plan.
What to listen for: Argues from what exists in the packet, spots the contrary authority unprompted, states what they would check next with more time, and asks clarifying questions instead of inventing facts.
A candidate who supplies facts the packet does not contain is showing you how they will handle your real files.
Bury one problem in the packet: a case whose later history limits it, or a source that does not say what its summary claims.
What to listen for: Whether they catch it.
The packet tests cite-checking in miniature — the candidate who flags the problem has shown you the skill; the one who cites it cleanly has shown you something too.
Ask for a single drafting slice: the opening paragraph of a demand letter, or the statement of facts from the packet.
What to listen for: Plain organization, no invented facts, and a tone ready for attorney edit.
Keep every slice short — you are sampling how they write, not collecting free work, which is one more reason the file stays fictional.
If the role is research-heavy, extend the same file with a question the packet does not answer, and ask how they would run the research outside the room: which sources, in what order, and when they would come back to you.
What to listen for: A concrete plan with a checkpoint in it.
Coming back at defined points is the supervision habit you want in a clerk — a candidate who promises a complete answer with no check-in has not yet understood the job.
Which questions are illegal or risky to ask?
Keep interview questions to what is essential to deciding whether the candidate can do the job — the EEOC's position is that questions about race, sex, national origin, age and religion are irrelevant to that decision.
Federal law does not clearly forbid every question touching those traits, but the answers can be used as evidence of an intent to discriminate unless the question is justified by a business purpose, so treat them as risky rather than merely awkward.
Two areas carry actual bans in specific jurisdictions — salary history in the states named below, and criminal history in California, New York City and Illinois — and federal anti-discrimination coverage itself depends on firm size: Title VII, the ADA and GINA cover private employers with 15 or more employees who worked at least 20 calendar weeks in the current or prior year, and the ADEA covers 20 or more employees under the same calendar-week test.
State and city rules can differ from the federal thresholds, so confirm your firm's position with employment counsel.
One role-specific note: class year and enrollment are the status the job requires, so ask about them directly — age is not part of the qualification, and questions about it are the risky kind.
- “How much are you making now?” California's Labor Code 432.3 bars seeking an applicant's salary history — benefits included, orally or in writing, personally or through an agent — at employers of any size, and bars relying on it in hiring and pay decisions. New York bars relying on wage or salary history and requesting it as a condition of being interviewed, considered, hired or promoted, or seeking it from a current or former employer (Labor Law 194-a). Illinois bars screening applicants by salary history and requesting it as a condition of an interview or offer, or seeking it from a current or former employer (820 ILCS 112). Massachusetts bars seeking it from the candidate or a current or former employer (G.L. c.149 s.105A). Connecticut bars asking about a prospective employee's wage and salary history unless the applicant volunteers it, Virginia's Code 40.1-28.7:12 bans seeking salary history, and so does Nevada's NRS 613.133. Many cities and other states have their own rules beyond the statutes verified for this page — check yours before you interview. Ask about salary expectations instead, which California's law expressly allows; if a candidate volunteers salary history unprompted, California lets you consider it, New York lets you confirm it only after you have made an offer with compensation and the candidate cites prior pay to support a higher number, and Massachusetts lets you confirm it only after a voluntary disclosure or an offer with compensation.
- “Have you ever been arrested or convicted?” In the three jurisdictions whose fair-chance laws this research checked — California, New York City and Illinois — this question is restricted early in hiring, though the timing differs. California's Fair Chance Act (Gov. Code 12952) applies to employers with five or more employees and bars asking about or considering conviction history until after a conditional offer of employment. New York City's Fair Chance Act — part of the NYC Human Rights Law since October 27, 2015 — makes asking about or considering an applicant's criminal history before a conditional offer unlawful for most employers. Illinois's Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act (820 ILCS 75/15) holds the question for covered employers until the applicant has been found qualified and selected for an interview or, when there is no interview, until after a conditional offer. This research did not cover fair-chance rules in other states and cities — check whether yours has one. If a California hire would be denied over conviction history, the firm must make an individualized assessment, notify the applicant in writing and give at least five business days to respond before a final decision. And weigh exclusions carefully everywhere: criminal-record screens that significantly disadvantage a protected group without predicting job performance can be unlawful disparate impact under FTC/EEOC guidance.
- “How is your health? Anything in your medical history we should know about?” Employers should not ask medical questions before a conditional job offer; FTC/EEOC guidance treats certain medical and genetic information restrictions as the exception to its general rule that it is generally not illegal for an employer to ask about an applicant's background or require a background check.
- Ordering a background report without the required steps. If you buy a report on a candidate from a background-check company, the FCRA path runs: a stand-alone written disclosure (not inside the application), the candidate's written permission, and — before taking an adverse action based on the report — a copy of the report plus “A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.”
- “Where are you from originally? How old are you? Are you married? What church do you attend?” The EEOC publishes guidance on pre-employment inquiries about race, height and weight, financial information, unemployed status, religious affiliation, citizenship, and marital status or number of children, and its position is that race, sex, national origin, age and religion are irrelevant to whether a person is qualified. If the concern is availability, ask about the work — the weekly hours, the term dates, exam weeks — not the household behind it.
After the interview
Score while it is fresh.
Rate each candidate against the same scorecard right after the interview, before the next one starts.
Across every question, the strong-versus-weak pattern holds: strong answers are specific — a named project, the candidate's own role in it, the decision, the reasoning, what they would repeat or change.
Weak answers stay generic: conclusions with no route, edits they cannot name, no deadline system, and mistakes that are always somebody else's.
A candidate who declines to hand over confidential specifics from a current or former employer is passing a test, not failing one.
Expect questions from the candidate — they carry signal too.
"Who reviews my work, and how quickly do drafts come back?" comes from someone who has understood the job is a supervised one; answer concretely, with the attorney and the turnaround you actually run.
"How do you run conflicts when your matters overlap where I have worked?" is a better signal still — a candidate who knows prior employers matter is showing judgment.
Be ready with a real answer: a nonlawyer clerk's conflict from prior work is not imputed to the firm under ABA Model Rule 1.10(a), but the clerk ordinarily must be screened from the matter (Comment [4] to the rule) — and states differ on the details, so describe your process and check your state's version of Rule 1.10.
The conflicts treatment for this hire is in our guide to how to hire a law clerk.
Questions about the term — hours, exam weeks, end-of-summer review, return offers — come from a candidate picturing themselves in the seat, and deserve concrete answers too.
Pay questions deserve the same: in California, an applicant can request the position's pay scale on reasonable request regardless of the firm's size, so know your figure before the interview.
No questions at all, or questions limited to perks, are the weaker signals — neither shows they have thought about doing the work.
Before you offer, close the loop you opened in the interview: check what you heard against references, run the conflicts screen against their prior employers, and put the pay terms in writing.
This page is employer information, not legal advice. Interview and screening rules — salary history, criminal history, medical inquiries, background reports — change and vary by jurisdiction. Confirm yours with the EEOC, your state labor agency and employment counsel before you interview.
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