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Hello everyone!

I think I may have a serious aversion to making decisions but here goes another question.....
Of the 3 schools I have been accepted into, I am VERY excited about 2 of them (the University of Kentucky Law and Louisville Law). I seriously have spent an unhealthy amount of time perusing through each school's website. The schools appear to be identical or very similar in most aspects of cost, employment percentage etc. The big difference comes down to judicial clerkships. According to their websites, less than 10% of UofL grads start out in clerkships whereas 25% of UK grads start out in clerkships. What is the significance? I hate to sound ignorant, but what are judicial clerkships? Clerking or a judge right? What is so great about that? Are they a good thing?

Sorry to sound so uninformed but I thought that this would be a good place to start....

Also, thanks everybody for the input on my last post!

Gordon

This is confusing because there are two grades of clerkship. One is state supreme court/federal court. The other is various forms of lower state court. Schools other than the elite ones like to count them together.

State supreme court or federal court clerkships pay reasonably well, are highly prestigous, and ordinarily got you a signing bonus and/or a class standing advance at large firms. Opinions vary on how much you actually learn, but they're overwhelmingly seen as very positive.

State court clerkships - which is what probably almost everything from those two schools is - pay less, may or may not have benefits, and ordinarily do not carry the placement perks of the higher rung of clerkships. They are still useful, but they are local.

ScaredWorkedBored wrote:This is confusing because there are two grades of clerkship. One is state supreme court/federal court. The other is various forms of lower state court. Schools other than the elite ones like to count them together.

State supreme court or federal court clerkships pay reasonably well, are highly prestigous, and ordinarily got you a signing bonus and/or a class standing advance at large firms. Opinions vary on how much you actually learn, but they're overwhelmingly seen as very positive.

State court clerkships - which is what probably almost everything from those two schools is - pay less, may or may not have benefits, and ordinarily do not carry the placement perks of the higher rung of clerkships. They are still useful, but they are local.

Here's a (somewhat out of date) chart to help separate this data:
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... iii_clerks

Granted, doesn't take into account state supreme courts, but it's interesting to see how, for example, KU's 25% clerkship placement translates to 6.7% federal.

Now, that federal number will further break down into District Courts and Courts of Appeals, which I'm sure someone has some data on somewhere.