{"id":149858,"date":"2026-04-29T11:32:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/29\/the-law-schools-where-the-most-graduates-got-federal-clerkships-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:32:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:32:02","slug":"the-law-schools-where-the-most-graduates-got-federal-clerkships-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/04\/29\/the-law-schools-where-the-most-graduates-got-federal-clerkships-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"The Law Schools Where The Most Graduates Got 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 American Bar Association recently released new employment data for the Class of 2025, and thanks to an analysis made by\u00a0Reuters<\/a>, we now know which law schools dominated the clerkship market by sending the highest percentage of graduates into federal clerkships.<\/p>\n

According to the ABA data, just 3.19% of the class of 2025 found work as federal clerks. In all, 30 schools \u2060were responsible for more than half (59%) of all federal clerk hiring, and the 10 law schools that sent the highest percentage of graduates into these clerkships are listed here. Without further ado, these are the top 10 schools for clerkships:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Yale: 23.33%<\/li>\n
  2. Chicago: 22.69%<\/li>\n
  3. Stanford: 19.47%<\/li>\n
  4. Notre Dame: 17.07%<\/li>\n
  5. Harvard: 16.61%<\/li>\n
  6. Texas: 14.29%<\/li>\n
  7. Alabama: 12.33%<\/li>\n
  8. Duke: 11.74%<\/li>\n
  9. Washington (St. Louis): 11.72%<\/li>\n
  10. Vanderbilt: 11.31%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    You can access the full list by clicking\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Yale might have lost its No. 1 spot<\/a> at the top of the U.S. News law school rankings, but the school is still pulling its weight when it comes to clerkship placements. The Ivy League school elbowed Chicago out of the way, after the Windy City school reigned in this ranking for four out of the last five years. Stanford still clocked in at the top of the heap for the class of 2025, sending just under 20% of its graduates to elite clerkships.<\/p>\n

    An obvious point to make here is that these rankings don\u2019t distinguish between prestige of clerkship. Were these judges the ABA determined to be \u201cqualified\u201d or \u201cnot qualified,\u201d<\/a> 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

    Congratulations to all of these law schools on helping their graduates get federal clerkships. Check back with us next year to see if Yale is able to hold onto the top spot.<\/p>\n

    These law schools sent the most grads to coveted clerkships in 2025<\/a> [Reuters]<\/p>\n

    \n
    \"\"
    <\/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\u00a0email<\/a>\u00a0her 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 Where The Most Graduates Got Federal Clerkships (2025)<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \"\"
    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Image via Getty)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/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 American Bar Association recently released new employment data for the Class of 2025, and thanks to an analysis made by\u00a0Reuters<\/a>, we now know which law schools dominated the clerkship market by sending the highest percentage of graduates into federal clerkships.<\/p>\n

    According to the ABA data, just 3.19% of the class of 2025 found work as federal clerks. In all, 30 schools \u2060were responsible for more than half (59%) of all federal clerk hiring, and the 10 law schools that sent the highest percentage of graduates into these clerkships are listed here. Without further ado, these are the top 10 schools for clerkships:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Yale: 23.33%<\/li>\n
    2. Chicago: 22.69%<\/li>\n
    3. Stanford: 19.47%<\/li>\n
    4. Notre Dame: 17.07%<\/li>\n
    5. Harvard: 16.61%<\/li>\n
    6. Texas: 14.29%<\/li>\n
    7. Alabama: 12.33%<\/li>\n
    8. Duke: 11.74%<\/li>\n
    9. Washington (St. Louis): 11.72%<\/li>\n
    10. Vanderbilt: 11.31%<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      You can access the full list by clicking\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      Yale might have lost its No. 1 spot<\/a> at the top of the U.S. News law school rankings, but the school is still pulling its weight when it comes to clerkship placements. The Ivy League school elbowed Chicago out of the way, after the Windy City school reigned in this ranking for four out of the last five years. Stanford still clocked in at the top of the heap for the class of 2025, sending just under 20% of its graduates to elite clerkships.<\/p>\n

      An obvious point to make here is that these rankings don\u2019t distinguish between prestige of clerkship. Were these judges the ABA determined to be \u201cqualified\u201d or \u201cnot qualified,\u201d<\/a> 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

      Congratulations to all of these law schools on helping their graduates get federal clerkships. Check back with us next year to see if Yale is able to hold onto the top spot.<\/p>\n

      These law schools sent the most grads to coveted clerkships in 2025<\/a> [Reuters]<\/p>\n

      \n
      \"\"
      <\/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\u00a0email<\/a>\u00a0her 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":149849,"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-149858","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\/2026\/04\/Staci-Zaretsky-10PSCl.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149858","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=149858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}