Clerkship Placement Stats 2009 Forum

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I'm glad to see Texas placing so well. Are there any numbers which would indicate how many of these clerks are CoA vs District court?

[Blindmelon]

Ouch BU.

[ggocat]

Is this only for class of '09 placement? I'm pretty sure that these stats are bunk if not -- that is, if they cover EVERY clerk from a school regardless of their graduation year. There are plenty of clerks who have been out of school for years.

Also, there are about ~960 clerks on that list. Let's further assume that there are some schools with maybe one clerk not on that list -- so we round the number to 1,000. There are roughly 800 active federal judges with another 450 senior judges. Let's assume that the average active judge has two clerks*. That means there are at least 1,600 clerk positions. The numbers above only cover a little more than half of that. I don't know how a "senior" judge operates, but even assuming that they only have ONE clerk -- that's another 450 right there that are unaccounted for.

* Keep in mind, with two per judge... I'm not counting the four [clerks] that each SCOTUS member has, and the high numbers that circuit courts normally have (upwards of four or five in many cases). Two per judge seems fair. The district court judge I am interning for has four clerks -- two full-time clerks, a deputy clerk, and a special master for a complex issue. Admittedly, she's probably in the minority with four at the district court level.

In sum, these numbers just don't make sense to me. I know two clerks from a single school alone, and I find it hard to believe that I know ~6% of the clerks from that school.

This must be for class of 2008, not 2009. U.S. News won't have data for class of 2009 yet.

The numbers make sense because many district judges have two law clerks completing two-year terms and stagger entry (one entering 2008, one entering 2009, etc.). Career clerks will also not be included because judges don't hire students for these positions. So probably 33-50% of clerks for district judges are not included in the list. Many circuit judges hire one or more term clerks who are law school graduates, and all SCOTUS justices only hire graduates. It would probably be conservative to say 20-33% of clerks for these judges are not included in the list. Finally, special masters and "deputy clerk" (assuming you mean courtroom deputy / courtroom clerk) are not considered law clerks. (And even if "deputy clerk" refers to the career law clerk, that person won't be included in the list because judges don't hire students for these positions).

[snotrocket]

Updated to include figures for all schools and adjust various apparent errors.

[snotrocket]

I'm glad to see Texas placing so well. Are there any numbers which would indicate how many of these clerks are CoA vs District court?

Apparently not. US News only asked for the figure reflecting clerks employed by any Article III judge.

[snotrocket]

The "success" of Regent and BYU in the first pass of these rankings appeared on further inspection to be unwarranted. See footnotes in the OP.

[snotrocket]

Stem and leaf plot for number of clerks per school:

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10|4
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06|8
05|4
04|166
03|0667
02|00015578
01|000012222333455667788
00|111122222222222222222222233333333333333333333333344444444444444555555555555555555556666666667777778888999999
**|************************************

[curiouser]

Stem and leaf plot for number of clerks per school:

nice. would love to see stem and leaf plot of proportionality figures.

[snotrocket]

nice. would love to see stem and leaf plot of proportionality figures.

Code: Select all

36|8
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23|0
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18|1
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13|9
12|4
11|7
10|099
09|0
08|0169
07|0339
06|00688
05|0125678899
04|0222245788999
03|0000122444778899
02|00000002344466677789
01|00000000000001222334567788888999999
00|00000000000000000000000000000000000033334445666678999999999999999

[underdawg]

but which clerks are in traffic court?

anyway, i don't remember where i saw this earlier (lawclerkaddict) but i remember the data was quite different

[Nietzsche]

More food for the Michigan troll

[FlightoftheEarls]

More food for the Michigan troll

[snotrocket]

but which clerks are in traffic court?

Reading comprehension pwned.

anyway, i don't remember where i saw this earlier (lawclerkaddict) but i remember the data was quite different

(1) LCA = LSN for Law Clerks. Incomplete data sets usually do produce different results from comprehensive surveys.
(2) Not sure how it is now, but in prior years LCA used to cover only COA clerks, which are a small subset of the Article III judiciary.
(3) LCA also did not distinguish alumni from current graduates -- USNWR asked for percent of the current class.

[jschuyler]

ugh why does gulc have to suck so hard at clerkship placement

[soullesswonder]

Duke at #6....and yet it continues to be panned by TLS. Some will never learn.

[snotrocket]

ugh why does gulc have to suck so hard at clerkship placement

They fall in 7th by number of clerks, right alongside Columbia and NYU. I wouldn't call that sucking. Only thing that kills them on the percentage is their crazy huge class size.

[underdawg]

but which clerks are in traffic court?

Reading comprehension pwned.

anyway, i don't remember where i saw this earlier (lawclerkaddict) but i remember the data was quite different

(1) LCA = LSN for Law Clerks. Incomplete data sets usually do produce different results from comprehensive surveys.
(2) Not sure how it is now, but in prior years LCA used to cover only COA clerks, which are a small subset of the Article III judiciary.
(3) LCA also did not distinguish alumni from current graduates -- USNWR asked for percent of the current class.

well pwn me by telling the answer. none?

be a helpful pwner

did this include non-right-out-of-law-school clerks?

[dbt]

Duke at #6....and yet it continues to be panned by TLS. Some will never learn.

I am impressed by Duke's showing. Really I don't see why it gets a bad rap on TLS...I mean, sure it sucks in non-quantifiable terms, but placement seems to be spot on.

[Joan Manuel Serrat]

Duke at #6....and yet it continues to be panned by TLS. Some will never learn.

Yale at #1....and yet it continues to be salivated over by TLS. Some never forget.

[snotrocket]

where i saw this earlier (lawclerkaddict) but i remember the data was quite different

(3) LCA also did not distinguish alumni from current graduates -- USNWR asked for percent of the current class.

did this include non-right-out-of-law-school clerks?

[snotrocket]

Proportion of all clerks accounted for by top X schools, ranked by number of clerks:

(e.g. 25% of all clerks accounted for by top 6 [top 3.3%] of schools ranked by number of clerks)

% / P / N
0.250 0.033 6
0.500 0.109 20
0.750 0.279 51
0.800 0.344 63
0.900 0.503 92

[como]

I love seeing some data to make people STFU about Duke and Cornell for a minute. Wait, it probably wont matter anyway.

[amped]

I have to say I'm impressed with New Mexico's percentage...although it may just be that no one else wants to go to New Mexico.

[Cal4future]

ND!

[lawlover829]

Wow.