Class of 2011 did poorly in clerkships (actually many of the classes between 2003-2011 did poorly).
The numbers were so poor in fact, that the school completely revamped its clerkship application process for the c/o 2012.
I don't know how the process worked before that. I think it was kind of a free for all. If you wanted a clerkship then you just applied cold. From what I recall about the new program is that if you want a federal clerkship it's done as more of a group effort where all applications are screened and all get the Dean's stamp of approval and they're all sent as a big packet. Honestly, I didn't go through the process but when I talked to someone that's doing a federal clerkship he said he thought it made a big difference.
At graduation there were a number of people that hadn't heard back about their clerkships. People are still getting calls and offers, so technically, at graduation they were unemployed, but they now have clerkships.
After clerkships-everyone with an appellate, NJ supreme, or federal [that I know of] will be heading to a law firm. Obviously that's not everyone that got one. A good number of people working for the Trial courts are either going to try and do a federal the next year or go into gov't jobs. The clerks I know that are ending their clerkship (c/o 2011) and that worked at Trial courts are going to prosecutors and PD jobs. I know 5 c/o 2011 trail court clerks. All 5 have follow-on jobs. All the jobs are in gov't.
--LinkRemoved-- (I cannot verify the accuracy of these stats)
http://lawclerksalary.net/NY/New-York/s ... erk-Salary
The pay for clerkship jobs is not very high. It's a gov't job. (Keep in mind "supreme" court typically refers to the highest court in the state, except for in NY, where the supreme court is the trial level and the NY Ct of Appeals is the highest court)
2011 article about clerkships for NJ and a R-N grad:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... ships.html
Fast facts
* There are an average of 470 law clerk slots open each year for 462 judgeships throughout Superior courts in New Jersey.
* For the 2010-11 court term, there were 1,405 law clerk applicants.
* For the 2009-10 term, there were 930 applicants.
* For the 2008-09 term, there were 620 applicants.
* Law clerk's salary range: $43,437 to $57,090.
Do I know people with sub 3.0 with clerkships--yep! The basic reason is because their 2L and 3Ls years were basically spent in the legal clinics where they directly represented clients in front of a particular judge, or they clerked for the judge during the school year, or a combination of both. If I were to round of 50 random c/o2012 grads I would guess 30-35 were school-term clerks for a judge at some point during law school.
I don't know how the school classifies the gov't/state. I'm sure if you work for the Prosecutor's office, Office of the Att general it could qualify under both. Clerkships should realistically be a category separate from government or state because it's such a special circumstance. Technically, it is full time, but it's also temporary (1 or 2 years). It doesn't require bar admission, but it's only open to recent law grads. Many people that are doing clerkships after graduation may also have a law firm offer but you can't double report employment so some may choose to put clerk while others put law firm.
Seton Hall v. Rutgers
I think both schools put about the same number of people into clerkship positions. Both schools probably send the same number of people to law firms. How that looks statistically is something all together different. I can honestly name 20 people from c/o 2012 doing a clerkship. 20/200 grads is 10% and those are just the ones I can name off the top of my head. If Seton Hall puts 50 students into a clerkship that's about 16%. So you can see how the numbers would see off.
Of the 80-100 or so firms known for (OCI) hiring from R-N and Seton Hall they usually have 1-2 spots open for students from each school. At Rutgers that translates to 40-50% the class. At Seton that's only 15-20% of the class. SH is so much bigger but they don't get more employers than Rutgers. And more R-N students are focused on gov't and public interest so they self-select into clerk/gov't obs more often. Majority of R-N students do not do OCI. Of the 150 or so eligible (based on graduation/curriculum) only about 1/2 of that actually bid on OCI. 75 students interviewing with 80-100 employers is pretty good odds. Even if only 50 of those employers really intends to hire anyone from R-N and is not just there to blow smoke up the student's asses...the odds are still really good.
The total COA at Rutgers is ~ $45/year for residents and ~$55k/yr for non-residents. Many students are or become NJ residents after the first year and the average debt after 3 years is ~$80k.
The COA at SH is $70k/yr, there is no discount for residents and the average debt at graduation is closer to $200k
Seton Hall is also known for giving generous scholarships that make the cost of tuition equal to that of Rutgers tuition, but often the scholarship has a stipulation about remaining in a certain percentage of the class. I think those 2L who retain it are about 50/50 (and I'm basing this on friends of mine that went to SH Law, yes the two schools get along quite well with one another).
I say all of that to say a R-N student getting a clerkship is not nearly as much of a hardship. Staying in gov't work is also not that difficult. Whereas the average SH (or any school where tuition is almost $50k/yr) is going to find it difficult to maintain any kind of lifestyle in the public sector where salaries are equal to 1/3 of your overall debt.