NALP Bulletin, July 2003
Each year, several thousand law school graduates obtain judicial clerkships. The table below provides a ten-year demographic profile of graduates taking judicial clerkships, both overall and at the federal, state, and local levels.
Overall, the percentage of clerkships obtained by Caucasian graduates has decreased by less than five percentage points since 1993. In 2002, Caucasian graduates made up 80% of all graduates, a figure almost four percentage points lower than their representation among 2002 clerks. Looking at specific levels of clerkships, those at the state level show the most consistent increases in minority representation over the ten-year period.
Racial/Ethnicity Distribution of Judicial Clerkships by Level
of Clerkship
Ten-Year Profile 1993-2002
| 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | |
| All Clerks | ||||||||||
| Native American | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.5% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.6% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 3.6 | 4.3 | 5.3 | 4.5 | 5.0 | 5.6 | 5.3 | 5.7 | 5.6 | 5.2 |
| African-American | 5.1 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 5.9 | 5.6 | 6.0 | 5.8 | 6.1 | 6.5 | 6.5 |
| Hispanic | 1.9 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 3.3 | 2.8 | 3.6 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.3 |
| Caucasian | 88.5 | 87.1 | 85.6 | 86.3 | 85.9 | 85.1 | 84.9 | 84.2 | 83.4 | 83.9 |
| Multi-racial | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0.5 | 0.6 |
| # of clerks | 2,943 | 3,010 | 3,115 | 3,224 | 3,245 | 3,427 | 3,422 | 3,444 | 3,471 | 3,342 |
| Federal Clerks | ||||||||||
| Native American | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 3.7 | 5.0 | 6.4 | 4.9 | 5.9 | 6.9 | 6.2 | 7.4 | 7.0 | 5.4 |
| African-American | 4.8 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 5.3 | 4.9 | 4.9 | 5.3 | 4.6 | 4.3 | 4.7 |
| Hispanic | 2.2 | 2.6 | 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.7 | 2.5 | 4.3 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 4.1 |
| Caucasian | 89.2 | 87.3 | 84.3 | 86.1 | 85.4 | 85.3 | 83.7 | 84.1 | 85.4 | 85.1 |
| Multi-racial | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0.2 | 0.5 |
| # of clerks | 1,228 | 1,248 | 1,263 | 1,246 | 1,250 | 1,296 | 1,338 | 1,335 | 1,336 | 1,258 |
| State Clerks | ||||||||||
| Native American | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 3.6 | 3.9 | 4.5 | 4.7 | 4.2 | 4.8 | 4.5 | 5.2 | 4.4 | 5.0 |
| African-American | 4.7 | 5.6 | 5.4 | 5.9 | 5.5 | 6.7 | 5.7 | 7.1 | 7.9 | 7.8 |
| Hispanic | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.1 | 2.7 | 3.2 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 3.6 | 4.0 | 2.9 |
| Caucasian | 88.8 | 87.6 | 87.5 | 86.5 | 86.7 | 85.0 | 86.1 | 83.6 | 82.4 | 83.0 |
| Multi-racial | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| # of clerks | 1,460 | 1,545 | 1,655 | 1,709 | 1,702 | 1,858 | 1,775 | 1,735 | 1,773 | 1,744 |
| Local Clerks | ||||||||||
| Native American | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.6 |
| Asian/Pacific Islander | 2.8 | 4.1 | 5.8 | 2.0 | 4.7 | 4.0 | 4.8 | 2.4 | 5.3 | 5.2 |
| African-American | 10.4 | 8.8 | 9.8 | 8.6 | 9.4 | 6.8 | 8.6 | 6.2 | 7.5 | 6.2 |
| Hispanic | 2.9 | 3.1 | 4.6 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 3.4 | 2.6 |
| Caucasian | 84.3 | 83.9 | 78.6 | 86.3 | 83.5 | 86.1 | 84.4 | 87.6 | 82.6 | 85.4 |
| Multi-racial | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 0.6 | 0.0 |
| # of clerks | 178 | 193 | 173 | 256 | 278 | 251 | 269 | 340 | 321 | 308 |
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.
