NALP Bulletin, June 2007
Each year, several thousand law school graduates obtain judicial clerkships. The table at right provides a demographic profile spanning 15 years of graduates taking judicial clerkships, both overall and at the federal, state, and local levels.
Even as the percentage of minority graduates has increased substantially over the last 15 years, minority representation among court clerks has not shown similar growth. Overall, the percentage of clerkships obtained by Caucasian graduates has decreased by just 7 percentage points since 1991. In 2005, Caucasian graduates made up 80% of all graduates, but their representation among 2005 clerks was 3 to 4 percentage points higher across all court levels. Looking at specific court levels, none have shown consistent increases in minority representation over the 15-year period. It is the case, however, that representation of Asian/Pacific Islander graduates has shown the most consistent growth across all levels of clerkships.
Racial/Ethnicity Distribution of Judicial Clerkships by Level
of Clerkship —
Fifteen-Year Profile 1991 — 2005
| 1991 | 1993 | 1995 | 1997 | 1999 | 2001 | 2003 | 2005 | |
| All Clerks | ||||||||
| Native American | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.6% | 0.4% |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 2.2 | 3.6 | 5.3 | 5.0 | 5.3 | 5.6 | 6.1 | 6.1 |
| African-American | 5.1 | 5.1 | 5.8 | 5.6 | 5.8 | 6.5 | 5.7 | 6.0 |
| Hispanic | 2.1 | 1.9 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 3.6 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 3.5 |
| Caucasian | 90.3 | 88.5 | 85.6 | 85.9 | 84.9 | 83.4 | 84.2 | 83.1 |
| Multi-racial | — | — | — | — | — | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.8 |
| # of clerks | 3,055 | 2,943 | 3,115 | 3,245 | 3,422 | 3,471 | 3,277 | 3,458 |
| Federal Clerks | ||||||||
| Native American | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 2.4 | 3.7 | 6.4 | 5.9 | 6.2 | 7.0 | 6.8 | 7.3 |
| African-American | 5.3 | 4.8 | 5.5 | 4.9 | 5.3 | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.9 |
| Hispanic | 2.2 | 2.2 | 3.4 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 4.3 |
| Caucasian | 89.7 | 89.2 | 84.3 | 85.4 | 83.7 | 85.4 | 8.5 | 82.6 |
| Multi-racial | — | — | — | — | — | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.7 |
| # of clerks | 1,334 | 1,228 | 1,263 | 1,250 | 1,338 | 1,336 | 1,263 | 1,267 |
| State Clerks | ||||||||
| Native American | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 2.4 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 5.8 | 5.7 |
| African-American | 4.7 | 4.7 | 5.4 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 7.9 | 7.0 | 6.5 |
| Hispanic | 2.1 | 2.7 | 2.1 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 4.0 | 3.5 | 3.2 |
| Caucasian | 90.5 | 88.8 | 87.5 | 86.7 | 86.1 | 82.4 | 82.6 | 83.4 |
| Multi-racial | — | — | — | — | — | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.8 |
| # of clerks | 1,397 | 1,460 | 1,655 | 1,702 | 1,775 | 1,773 | 1,680 | 1,792 |
| Local Clerks | ||||||||
| Native American | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.6 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 0.7 | 2.8 | 5.8 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 5.3 | 4.2 | 4.4 |
| African-American | 6.5 | 10.4 | 9.8 | 9.4 | 8.6 | 7.5 | 5.5 | 6.4 |
| Hispanic | 2.0 | 2.9 | 4.6 | 2.5 | 2.2 | 3.4 | 1.0 | 2.9 |
| Caucasian | 90.8 | 84.3 | 78.6 | 83.5 | 84.4 | 82.6 | 88.6 | 84.5 |
| Multi-racial | — | — | — | — | — | 0.6 | — | 1.2 |
| # of clerks | 306 | 178 | 173 | 278 | 269 | 321 | 307 | 343 |
Note: All figures exclude graduates for whom race or ethnicity was not reported. The Asian/Pacific Islander category includes the East Indian/Pakistani category starting in 2001. The option of reporting more than one race/ethnicity was introduced in 2001.
