“There has been a definite strain on the system over the past couple of years,” said Sheila Driscoll, director of judicial clerkships at George Washington University Law School and the chairwoman of the National Association for Law Placement’s (NALP) judicial clerkship section. “People are really worried that it’s not going to last.”
Before 2003, judges hired clerks as early as they pleased. That’s when two appellate judges persuaded most of their peers to agree to a voluntary plan that pushed federal clerk hiring back from the 2L year to September of the 3L year.
