career > judicial clerkship application timelines
Several years ago the federal judiciary, on the recommendation of an ad hoc committee of federal appellate and district judges, adopted a rule barring the hiring of prospective judicial clerks for the federal courts before the start of the applicants third year of law school. The University of Oregon School of Law enthusiastically supported the change. Trends in hiring had pushed the decision earlier, year-by-year until students were faced with the necessity of applying for clerkships, and deciding on offers, nearly two years before the commencement of their employment. Timing clerkship interviews and offers in the third year enables judges to make better choices among applicants and permits applicants to make decisions that accord better with their career plans and life circumstances. At the same time, as the state law school, we remain committed to facilitating our students' applications to state court judges under the rules and timelines approved by each state's judicial branch. To implement this policy, the Career Services Office and Clerkship Committee are committed to providing assistance, counsel, and, for faculty letters of recommendation, mail merge assistance to clerkship applicants, under the following circumstances:
- For applicants for federal district and appellate clerkships, only after the end of the second
year of law school, to aid in preparation of application materials which will be mailed timed to arrive, no earlier than the day after Labor Day of the third year for clerkships to commence the year after graduation (note: applicants to the United States Supreme Court are exempted from this rule);
- For applicants for Oregon state appellate clerkships, during the sixty days prior to the deadline
for applications set by the Oregon Supreme Court, which has heretofore required application at
the close of the second year of law school;
- For applicants for other state appellate clerkships outside Oregon, on a case-by-case basis but
in no case prior to sixty days before the deadline set by those courts for submission of clerkship applications.
Federal clerkship applicants should prepare their application materials during the summer after second year to be FedExed, mailed or timed to arrive no sooner than the day after Labor Day at the commencement of their third year of law study. Assistance will be available during the summer from the Career Services Office and Judicial Clerkship Committee's with the understanding that applications are to be sent to arrive no earlier than the day after Labor Day. Applicants for Oregon state appellate clerkships should apply no sooner than April of their second year, or later as specified by the state appellate system. Applicants for state appellate clerkships outside Oregon should consult Career Services or the Committee if they believe that they must apply sooner than the deadline set by the Oregon appellate courts.
Faculty are requested not to write recommendation letters for federal clerkship applicants, or to make telephone or in-person contacts with potential federal judicial employers for purposes of making such recommendations, until after Labor Day of the student's third year. Staff assistance with faculty letters of recommendation will be available to second- and third-year students preparing clerkship applications to be submitted according to the timetable above.
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