Who’s Hiring State Supreme Court Clerks?
State-by-state information to aid law students and young attorneys in securing a state clerkship.
Clerking on a state supreme court is one of the most exciting jobs available to recent law graduates. Most state high courts choose the issues they consider, and all play a prominent role in shaping constitutional law within their state. State Court Report has created a number of resources for interested applicants, including a conversation with state justices on clerking and information on specific opportunities available to clerkship seekers.
But applying for state supreme court clerkships can be confusing, in part because state court clerkship applications are not standardized. Though some courts list their positions on CORA, a platform designed by the National Center for State Courts to collect clerkship opportunities, there is no state equivalent to the federal OSCAR system. And courts and justices are allocated different numbers of clerks, judicial assistants, and staff attorneys. Some courts don’t hire short-term clerks at all.
This variation can make it difficult to know what opportunities are available. This post aims to help clerkship applicants in two ways: (1) by explaining which courts regularly hire term law clerks and roughly how many opportunities might be available and (2) by hyperlinking, when available, to each court’s clerkship-related materials.
Hiring Practices
State supreme courts’ hiring practices can be sorted into two broad groups: those that regularly hire term clerks and those that primarily rely on career clerks. A term clerk holds their position for a set period of time, typically between one to two years, while a career clerk serves indefinitely. Career clerks often (though not always) have previous judicial clerkship or practice experience.
Term Clerk Courts
The majority of state supreme courts in the United States hire term law clerks, often in addition to a single permanent law clerk or judicial assistant. At the Colorado Supreme Court, for example, each justice hires three clerks. Some of the justices routinely hire three term clerks for one-year terms, while others hire a permanent law clerk in addition to two year-long term clerks. Other courts, like the Connecticut Supreme Court, have an established tradition of hiring a certain number of career clerks and certain number of term clerks per justice.
Listed below are those courts which regularly hire term law clerks. The number of clerks per justice indicates the number of term clerks the average justice on that court could hire in a given year. However, given multi-year clerkship terms and variation in terms of permanent career clerks, not every justice will hire this number every year. In addition, the chief justice is sometimes allotted extra staff, so they may hire over and above the number identified below.
Finally, where a state supreme court has a website devoted specifically to the hiring of law clerks, that page is hyperlinked.
Career Clerk Courts
A relatively small number of state supreme courts conduct no term law clerk hiring as a matter of practice and tradition. Those interested in working with these courts and these justices should check job postings on court websites for permanent staff openings, but clerkship opportunities will be far more sporadic.
Ultimately, given that most justices run their own process for hiring their law clerks, applicants should research the specific opportunities available in a given year.
Jake Mazeitis (he/him) was a law clerk on both the Colorado Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Suggested Citation: Jake Mazeitis, Who’s Hiring State Supreme Court Clerks?, Sᴛᴀᴛᴇ Cᴏᴜʀᴛ Rᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ (Jan. 21, 2026), https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/whos-hiring-state-supreme-court-clerks
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