Long considered a prestigious opportunity for recent law school graduates, judicial clerkships provide invaluable insights into what judges do day-to-day, and how they think, write and otherwise conduct themselves, along with the unique experience of acting as their apprentices, drafting opinions, orders, jury instructions and more.
Northwestern Pritzker Law places dozens of clerks each year, who usually serve for one or two years, including one alumna who clerked recently for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and another who will serve as a Supreme Court Fellow in the coming year. The vast majority—around 85%—work in federal court at the trial and appellate level. While some start these positions right out of law school, most work elsewhere first, says Janet Siegel Brown, a senior lecturer and director of judicial clerkships.
Recent law clerks have secured highly sought-after positions in elite law firms, government agencies, public interest organizations, and academia. Many alumni who have become judges were clerks early in their careers, Brown says.
During the past three years, there have been 212 Northwestern Pritzker Law graduates clerking in 30 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico; and over the past decade there have been 598, including six at the U.S. Supreme Court. “Employers value them, and law firms compete to hire people out of these positions,” Brown says. “Lots of prestigious fellowships and other opportunities come people’s way.”
Among recent alumni who have clerked and then gone on to even greater things are: Austin Piatt (JD ’22), who completed two federal appellate clerkships and for the past year has held a prestigious Bristow Fellowship in the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office; Henry Zhu (JD ’22), who completed federal district and circuit court clerkships, and then was selected for a highly competitive Skadden Fellowship, which he is currently completing at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago; and Hannah Friedle (JD ’23), who held a federal district court clerkship and then was selected for the prestigious Curtis-Liman Fellowship, working with Yale Law School’s Liman Center and the Connecticut Federal Defenders—and who also has secured a clerkship in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals following completion of her fellowship.
Another recent alum whose clerkships alone stand out is Leigh Kramer (JD ’22), who clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court this past term and Judge Mary Margaret McKeown on the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals the year before. Kramer was not too familiar with clerkships at the outset of law school but received encouragement from numerous professors as well as summer internship mentors, who told her that it would be an excellent training ground.
“Professors are very willing, if you ask them and put yourself out there, to help you. They want to see you succeed in clerkships and find the right fit,” she says. “They were helpful in conversations about what it means to clerk and preparing recommendation letters and phone calls. Janet Brown was good about connecting me with alumni in advance of interviews and figuring out which judges to apply to.”
Kramer advises those interested in clerkships to take courses such as Federal Jurisdiction, Advanced Federal Jurisdiction and Evidence. “Mostly judges want to see that you’re keeping up a decently heavy caseload … keeping your foot on the gas pedal,” she says.
The pace of work at the appellate and Supreme Court level are very different, as are the respective skills they teach, Kramer says. The Supreme Court handles a number of high-profile emergency appeals, which makes the day-to-day docket more unpredictable and dynamic. It also chooses which cases to review by considering writs from lower courts through the process known as certiorari.
“A lot of times, at the Supreme Court, you’re dealing with a lot less factual issues,” Kramer says. “Every level you go up, the questions become more and more purely legal. … You get a lot more, by virtue of seeing the entire lifecycle of litigation. I’ve now seen it in a couple of stages, at the intermediate appellate court and now the Supreme Court. I encourage people to do as many levels as they can.”
Kramer appreciates how much she’s had a chance to encounter different legal issues, write about them in various contexts, and learn from Chief Justice Roberts and Judge McKeown. “Both were wonderful mentors, incredible legal thinkers, and also wonderful people,” she says. “You’re also surrounded by your co-clerks, who are brilliant peers. There are three other clerks in each chambers. You’re one of four people who gets to work with and have lunch with [the judge] on an everyday basis. Getting to know them is a privilege.”
Kramer observes that jurists want to get to the right result in the clearest and most concise way, which means that both clerks that work for them and attorneys who appear before them make their points succinctly. “Judges are super busy. They don’t want to hear a ton of noise” she says. “When you’re litigating, you want to help them balance thoroughness and efficiency. That’s always a tension in this profession, and it’s a very important one to get right. And it’s very hard.”
Another recent alum who has landed in august company is Keegan Coppola (JD ’24), who clerked for U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston of the Northern District of Illinois this past year and will work at the U.S. Sentencing Commission during the upcoming year as part of the Supreme Court Fellows Program.
Coppola recalls that some of the most rewarding aspects of law school were courses taught by judges. She began to see the value in clerking while asking those adjunct professors what they thought about the reasoning in different cases or different party presentations. “I realized I could spend a full year with a judge to peek behind the curtain and understand how decisions are made.”
As someone who transferred to Northwestern Pritzker Law as a second-year, Coppola appreciates the impact that the school’s brand name, as well as its reputation for producing quality law clerks, had in boosting her prospects. Criminal Procedure, Introduction to Trial Advocacy, and Advanced Trial Practice were among the classes that laid the groundwork and provided Coppola with needed skills for clerkships, while mock trial and a semester externship with Judge Edmond Chang (JD ’94) of the Northern District of Illinois (see sidebar) were outside-of-class activities that accelerated her interest. In her opinion, these experiences prepared her to hit the ground running at the district court.
In a typical day during the past year, Coppola found herself working on anything from motions for summary judgment, to discovery motions, to trial work, such as preparing juror pre-trial questionnaires. Coppola described the trial experiences as her favorite part of the job because they’re fast-paced and high-stakes. “There are ample opportunities to take on additional responsibilities to keep things running smoothly. I find that part of the process especially challenging and exciting.”
Among the key lessons learned for Coppola was how judges work with staff to make decisions, and how much responsibility some law clerks have. In Judge Johnston’s chambers, law clerks often engage in a collaborative, iterative discussion with the judge. That gives clerks unique insight into how decisions are made and empowers them to participate in the full lifecycle of the case. “This sense of responsibility, thoughtfulness, and precision will stay with me for the rest of my career.”
By the start of third year, students who plan to clerk immediately after graduation often have their destinations determined, although judges will continue to hire as the school year gets underway.
Lindsey Roloff will spend her first year out of law school with U.S. District Judge William Griesbach of the Eastern District of Wisconsin and the following year (2027-28) with U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Judge Michael Scudder (JD ’98).
“Being able to see what is successful, what works, and what’s maybe not as convincing will be beneficial as I head into a legal career,” she says, adding that she also hopes to gain long-lasting friendships from her co-clerks, lifelong mentors from the judges, and “soft skills from the process.”
Clerking will be an excellent transition from law school into private practice, Roloff believes, because clerks become exposed to many areas of the law while interacting with the parties’ briefs and trying to find the right answer, rather than arguing a particular client’s perspective.
She expects the day-to-day of her clerkships will involve interacting with her co-clerks and the judge, assisting with everything from bench memos to prepare for a hearing or argument, to helping them write draft decisions, while helping the dive into complex legal questions. “Judges are looking for clerks who have grit—someone who shows they want to put in the work and have the drive to do it,” Roloff says.
May Hiatt will clerk in the 2027-28 term for First Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge David Barron in Boston. He had clerking in mind from the outset of law school. With a goal to enter legal academia, Hiatt had noticed “a lot of the professors I respect and want to emulate clerked, and many of the judges I applied to clerk for had themselves been professors. … I applied to judges that I thought had a life path that looked like something I would be interested in doing.”
During Hiatt’s summer associateship at civil litigation firm Williams & Connolly—which might be the destination for his first year out of law school—Hiatt met someone who clerked for Judge Barron several years ago.
Some judges silo clerks, and some have them all work together; Hiatt was told that with Judge Barron, it’s somewhere in between. “Before they send the bench memo, other clerks read it and give you notes. Maybe the other clerk has taken a class that I haven’t in law school and knows a case I didn’t,” he says. “Judge Barron asked me to clerk the following year because he likes to have a good diversity of expertise: ‘I think you would fit better with that group.’”
Adam Brody will spend 2026-27 with Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Amy St. Eve and the following term with D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Florence Pan. He had known about clerkships prior to law school and reaffirmed his interest after doing a judicial externship last fall with Judge St. Eve.
At Northwestern Pritzker Law, Brody has served as an executive editor of the Northwestern University Law Review, as a research assistant for Professor Nadav Shoked, as a moot court team member, and as a participant who competed in and won the Julius H. Miner Moot Court Competition this past year.
“I’m excited for how clerking will give me the chance to develop legal research and writing skills,” he says. “The opportunity to observe advocacy before the court, while gaining insight into judicial reasoning and how judges assess arguments, hopefully will make me better prepared to begin advocating for clients.”
Like others, he hopes to form close relationships with judges who will become mentors throughout his career. “Clerking offers the possibility to contribute in a small way to how the law is shaped,” he says. “I’m looking forward to thinking through thorny and novel legal issues alongside judges and fellow clerks.”
Brown says clerks have told her that beyond the connections and prestige, the opportunity to participate in what happens behind the scenes in judicial chambers is extremely worthwhile. “They will read briefs and the record, draft a memo analyzing both sides, and make a recommendation on the way they think the case should be decided, and typically draft the order or opinion as well,” she says. “It’s a truly unique opportunity to help shape the law and serve the interests of justice.”
Northwestern Pritzker Law offers support and advising to recent alumni in addition to current students, Brown says, noting that some people use clerkships to make a transition two or three years into their career. Both alumni and current students benefit from the Law School’s faculty who write individualized, detailed letters and reach out with personal recommendations to judges, Brown says. “You get this bespoke experience here,” she says, relative to larger schools.
Another Pritzker School of Law alum who began his career as a judicial clerk was U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang (JD ’94) of the Northern District of Illinois, an adjunct professor at the Law School. He clerked immediately after graduating for Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge James Ryan in Detroit and the following year for a now-colleague, then-Chief Judge Marvin Aspen (JD ’58), Edward Avery Harriman Adjunct Professor of Law at the Law School.
Judge Chang recalls that faculty members suggested the experience as a great way to both perform public service and learn about litigation from the inside. The experiences served him well in his pre-judicial legal career, which culminated in serving for 11 years as prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he rose to chief of appeals, he says.
“It was a high privilege to serve the public in this [clerking] role and feel the weight of responsibility to the public and each of the litigants,” Judge Chang reflects. “It was valuable to discuss with the judges how we should resolve the case. We got a sense of how they approached arguments, legal and factual, and they gave you insights on what’s persuasive and what’s not.”
Judge Chang has hired many graduates of the Law School in his nearly 15 years on the bench because they bring the traits he’s seeking in a clerk. He shared his thoughts on what traits he looks for in clerks, some of which any legal employer would want, advising those considering the clerkship path to challenge themselves in their coursework, take a heavier load of important doctrinal classes and go somewhat lighter on smaller seminars. His top half-dozen qualities would be:
While every legal employer wants this, judges particularly need clerks who can learn new areas of the law quickly, Judge Chang says. “One of the wonders and certainly challenges of a clerkship is, you’re working for a judge who has all manner of cases,” especially in federal court, where civil and criminal are not divided, he says. “It’s anything Congress has thought of and decided to put inside the U.S. code, and anything the Illinois Assembly has thought of.”
While applying the tools of statutory interpretation is certainly important, much of the job is factual analysis, Judge Chang says. “I’m looking for law clerks who have some experience in the real world,” he says. “The idea here is to be able to have the common sense to examine the factual record and draw inferences. … Could a reasonable juror, drawn from all walks of life, find, based on these facts, for the plaintiff?”
Judge Chang does not dissuade those who see themselves ending up in transactional work from pursuing clerkships—he’s had some excellent clerks who went that route—but applicants should at least want to learn what it’s like to litigate and “believe, correctly, that experience would help them in transaction of in-house work,” he says. “If they are just disinclined—’I don’t enjoy litigation at all, I don’t like the confrontation’—we’re calling balls-and-strikes. Someone’s winning, someone’s losing. I do look for some spark of interest.”
Courts make decisions that are extremely important and impactful in people’s lives, which means that when clerks are unsure about something, they need to ask questions—and not be too afraid or insecure to do so, Judge Chang says. “We can’t have, in this job, individuals who are … almost like AI hallucinations: ‘I don’t want to look like I have a gap in knowledge,’ or, ‘This question is silly and stupid,’” he says. “I want you to come in and ask questions and acknowledge that [gap]. Not everyone has enough self-assurance.”
As with the litigation vs. transactional question, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the applicant plans to stay in public sector law long-term, but they need to have a sense of obligation, as lawyers, to the public at large, Judge Chang says. “Maybe what’s at stake is $10,000 in Social Security benefits, not a multimillion-dollar antitrust case,” he says. “But it is the most important case to that litigant. I want clerks willing to devote time and attention to smaller cases as much as highly publicized ones.”
Clerks need to be team players and friendly people, especially to jurors, Judge Chang says. “It takes on special importance in chambers. I have such a small law office,” he says, with three clerks, a court reporter, his deputy and himself. “It really is important that clerks have this sense of a team mission to help out with whatever I ask of them,” including cases in which they’re not the person with primary responsibility, or even answering the phones if the court deputy is out that day. Jurors and litigants can be nervous, having seldom if ever been in court. “We want to put them at ease as much as possible,” he says. “Not to be standoffish and bureaucratic.”
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