The Law Schools That Are The Best For Federal Clerkships (2023)

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Do you like prestige? Of course you do. Is there really a law student who doesn’t? That being said, if you’re like the majority of your colleagues and you’d like to embark upon one of the most prestigious career paths available to recent law school graduates, then you’ll probably want to compete for an elite federal clerkship.

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The latest Princeton Review law school rankings are out, and today, we’ll focus on yet another incredibly important ranking for those who are trying to get a top job within the judiciary: The law schools that the best for federal clerkships.

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Which law schools do you think came out on top of this list?

First, we’ll begin with the methodology Princeton Review used to determine which law schools are the best for getting federal clerkships. This ranking was based on school-reported data, specifically, the percent of 2021 JD graduates who were employed federal judicial clerkships.

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According to Princeton Review, these are the law schools that are the best for obtaining federal clerkships:

1. University of Chicago Law School
2. Stanford University School of Law
3. Yale University Law School
4. University of Virginia School of Law
5. Harvard University Law School
6. Washington University School of Law
7. Duke University School of Law
8. University of Michigan Law School
9. University of Alabama School of Law
10. University of Kentucky College of Law

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Way to go, Chicago and Stanford! The elite schools managed to keep Yale out of the top spot for clerkships in 2021. Will it happen again now that there’s so much controversy going on at Yale when it comes to clerkships? We suppose we’ll see how that shakes out next year.

An obvious point to make here is that these rankings don’t distinguish between prestige of clerkship. Were these feeder judges or non-feeder judges, circuit courts or district courts, Article III courts or non-Article III courts? In the land of law, these things are important. Considering how coveted federal clerkships are, we’d absolutely love to see this information.

Did your law school make the cut? If it did, do you think it was ranked fairly? If it didn’t make the list for best career prospects, do you agree with that assessment? Please email us or text us (646-820-8477) your thoughts.

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Best Law Schools 2023 [Princeton Review]
Best for Federal Clerkships 2023 [Princeton Review]

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Topics

Clerkships, Courts, Law Schools, Law Students, Rankings