Top Law Schools

I’m a 3L at a top 30 law school. My initial plans for post-grad fell through for various decision (i decided the position was not for me). I am looking at other options including a clerkship in nj. I understand the hiring starts pretty early (they started last June I believe) but the deadline is in march. Is securing a clerkship still a possibility? In anybody’s experience, how badly does the fact that im applying this late hurt my chances? Do judges consider earlier applications first or simply look down upon late applications?
It seems like courts must get a hell of a lot of applications given how easy the process is to apply. Can anybody speak to the method a (any, preferabbly lower court) judge has used to go through the large amount of applications, i.e. gpa cut off, etc?
Thank you J

Unfortunately the vast majority of judges would already have hired. You could try to put in some feelers and see if any judges fired clerks/had their plans fall through