New Data Reveals Stanford Law School Graduates Achieved the Highest Percentage of Federal Clerkships Among All US Law Schools
New data from the American Bar Association reveals that a quarter of Stanford Law School's 2022 graduates secured federal clerkships, giving it the highest percentage among all law schools in the US. This puts Stanford ahead of the University of Chicago Law School, which held the top spot for the past two years but has now slipped to third place, with just over 20% of recent graduates securing clerkships. Yale Law School moved to second place, with almost 23% of its juris doctor graduates in 2022 taking federal clerkships. The University of Notre Dame Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law rounded out the top five with 15% and almost 13% of their 2022 graduates in federal clerkships, respectively.
Yale Law School Takes Second Place for Federal Clerkships, According to New ABA Data
It's worth noting that both Stanford and Yale Law Schools have faced criticism over campus free speech in the past year. US Circuit Judges James Ho and Elizabeth Branch have publicly stated that they will not hire future Stanford and Yale law students as clerks due to protests against conservative speakers at both schools. However, this boycott did not apply to law students who graduated in 2022.
A relatively small number of law schools dominate the federal clerk hiring market. According to the ABA figures, the top 10 law schools with the highest percentage of federal clerks produced one-third of all clerks nationwide this year.
Federal Clerkships Highly Coveted Among Law Graduates Despite Low Overall Numbers, ABA Reports
Federal clerkships are highly prestigious, year-long positions seen as necessary credentials for other highly sought-after legal jobs, such as associate positions at large firms and law professorships.
However, the number of law graduates securing federal clerkships could be much more significant. The ABA data shows that only 3% of the 36,078 law graduates in 2022 are clerking for federal judges. While the ABA figures do not provide a breakdown of clerks by race, data from the National Association for Law Placement shows that 80% of 2021's federal clerks were white. Asian and Hispanic graduates accounted for nearly 6% of those clerks, while 5% were Black.
It's worth noting that the ABA data also shows that the percentage of law graduates working in law firms of 501 or more attorneys dropped slightly from 22.6% in 2021 to 22.3% in 2022. This may suggest a shift from traditional large law firm jobs among recent law school graduates. Meanwhile, the percentage of graduates taking jobs in public interest, government, and academia increased slightly from the previous year.
