{"id":129740,"date":"2025-08-06T13:45:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T21:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/06\/the-law-schools-that-are-the-best-for-federal-clerkships-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T13:45:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T21:45:52","slug":"the-law-schools-that-are-the-best-for-federal-clerkships-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/06\/the-law-schools-that-are-the-best-for-federal-clerkships-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The Law Schools That Are The Best For Federal Clerkships (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you like prestige? Of course you do. Is there really a law student who doesn\u2019t? That being said, if you\u2019re like the majority of your colleagues and you\u2019d like to embark upon one of the most prestigious career paths available to recent law school graduates, then you\u2019ll probably want to compete for an elite federal clerkship.<\/p>\n

The latest Princeton Review law school rankings are out, and today, we\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

Which law schools do you think came out on top of this list?<\/p>\n

First, we\u2019ll 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 2024 J.D. graduates who were employed in federal judicial clerkships.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Princeton Review<\/a>, these are the law schools that are the best for obtaining federal clerkships:<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. University of Chicago Law School (ranked #3 last year)<\/li>\n
  2. Yale University Law School (no change)<\/li>\n
  3. Harvard University Law School (ranked #6 last year)<\/li>\n
  4. Stanford University School of Law (ranked #1 last year)<\/li>\n
  5. University of Notre Dame Law School (ranked #4 last year)<\/li>\n
  6. University of Virginia School of Law (ranked #5 last year)<\/li>\n
  7. University of Texas at Austin School of Law (ranked #10 last year)<\/li>\n
  8. University of Alabama School of Law (ranked #7 last year)<\/li>\n
  9. Duke University School of Law (ranked #8 last year)<\/li>\n
  10. University of Michigan Law School (unranked last year)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    An obvious point to make here is that these rankings don\u2019t 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\u2019d absolutely love to see this information. If you have it, please feel free to email us.<\/p>\n

    Did your law school make the cut? If it did, do you think it was ranked fairly? If it didn\u2019t make the list for being best for federal clerkships, do you agree with that assessment? Please\u00a0email us<\/a>\u00a0or text us (646-820-8477) your thoughts.<\/p>\n

    Best for Federal Clerkships 2025<\/a> [Princeton Review]<\/p>\n

    \n
    \"Staci
    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

    The post The Law Schools That Are The Best For Federal Clerkships (2025)<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n

    Do you like prestige? Of course you do. Is there really a law student who doesn\u2019t? That being said, if you\u2019re like the majority of your colleagues and you\u2019d like to embark upon one of the most prestigious career paths available to recent law school graduates, then you\u2019ll probably want to compete for an elite federal clerkship.<\/p>\n

    The latest Princeton Review law school rankings are out, and today, we\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

    Which law schools do you think came out on top of this list?<\/p>\n

    First, we\u2019ll 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 2024 J.D. graduates who were employed in federal judicial clerkships.<\/p>\n

    According to\u00a0Princeton Review<\/a>, these are the law schools that are the best for obtaining federal clerkships:<\/p>\n

    \n
      \n
    1. University of Chicago Law School (ranked #3 last year)<\/li>\n
    2. Yale University Law School (no change)<\/li>\n
    3. Harvard University Law School (ranked #6 last year)<\/li>\n
    4. Stanford University School of Law (ranked #1 last year)<\/li>\n
    5. University of Notre Dame Law School (ranked #4 last year)<\/li>\n
    6. University of Virginia School of Law (ranked #5 last year)<\/li>\n
    7. University of Texas at Austin School of Law (ranked #10 last year)<\/li>\n
    8. University of Alabama School of Law (ranked #7 last year)<\/li>\n
    9. Duke University School of Law (ranked #8 last year)<\/li>\n
    10. University of Michigan Law School (unranked last year)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

      An obvious point to make here is that these rankings don\u2019t 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\u2019d absolutely love to see this information. If you have it, please feel free to email us.<\/p>\n

      Did your law school make the cut? If it did, do you think it was ranked fairly? If it didn\u2019t make the list for being best for federal clerkships, do you agree with that assessment? Please\u00a0email us<\/a>\u00a0or text us (646-820-8477) your thoughts.<\/p>\n

      Best for Federal Clerkships 2025<\/a> [Princeton Review]<\/p>\n

      \n
      \"Staci
      <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Do you like prestige? Of course you do. Is there really a law student who doesn\u2019t? That being said, if you\u2019re like the majority of your colleagues and you\u2019d like to embark upon one of the most prestigious career paths available to recent law school graduates, then you\u2019ll probably want to compete for an elite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":129741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Staci-Zaretsky-s6xPjL.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}