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Rising 2L that is very interested in clerking. I’ve been told that a lot of judges hire after 1L. When I’ve talked to my school’s career services office, they’ve been less than helpful in advising on how to begin the process this summer. Any advice on determining which judges accept applications before 2L and how to begin applying? Should I just be cold emailing chambers asking if they are taking applications for my class year?

The best way to find out, if your school’s official channels are unhelpful, is to talk to any friends you have in FedSoc and/or professors who have a reputation on campus for being helpful with clerkships. The general rule of thumb is that Democratic-appointed judges hire on plan and GOP-appointed judges do not. But some GOP-appointed judges do, and even some who don’t might require, say, three semesters of grades as opposed to one or two. The best way to find out is to talk to people in the know.

If you search TLS for recent threads on off-plan judges, you should find some helpful crowd-sourced lists here too.

There are plenty of Democratic-appointed judges who hire off-plan as well; they just aren't open about it and hire people based on connections. Gelpi is one for starters.