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.
The latest Princeton Review law school rankings are out, and today, we’ll focus on yet another valuable ranking for those who are trying to get a within the judiciary: The law schools that are the best for federal clerkships.
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 state clerkships. This ranking was based on school-reported data, specifically, the percent of 2023 J.D. graduates who were employed in federal judicial clerkships.
According to Princeton Review, these are the law schools that are the best for obtaining state clerkships:
- Stanford University School of Law
- Yale University Law School
- University of Chicago Law School
- University of Notre Dame Law School
- University of Virginia School of Law
- Harvard University Law School
- University of Alabama School of Law
- Duke University School of Law
- Vanderbilt University Law School
- University of Texas at Austin School of Law
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. If you have it, please feel free to email us.
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 being best for federal clerkships, do you agree with that assessment? Please email us or text us (646-820-8477) your thoughts.
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 X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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