Attention Rising 2Ls and 3Ls!
You may begin applying to Federal Judges on OSCAR as of August 1st. You will be able to build online applications
and submit them for consideration to judges and staff attorney offices who have available position listings.
There is no formal hiring plan this year so please check all judges on OSCAR to determine if they are accepting applications and their preferred method of receipt (ex: online or mail). Applications will be released to each selected Judge at the time of submission and not held until a later date as in the past. Please make sure that all of your materials are perfect! See the CPPO for assistance! Also, if your recommenders need assistance, please have them contact us in the CPPO to upload their recommendation letters.
To apply and for further information: OSCAR: https://oscar.uscourts.gov/
Based on a number of judges abandoning the Federal Law Hiring Plan (Hiring Plan) and feedback from the law schools, the OSCAR Working Group judges recently recommended de-linking OSCAR from the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan. As of November 4, 2013, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) opened OSCAR to second-year law school students and now releases their finalized applications at the time of submission, rather than holding them until a specified date.
As judges are now free to accept online applications from law students at any time, OSCAR will now require judges to populate the “Hiring Practices” field of their online judge profile to inform potential applicants of their hiring preferences.
These changes in OSCAR will contribute to the federal judiciary’s goal of providing a transparent and fair recruitment process in law clerk hiring, which is important to judges, law schools, and applicants alike. As part of this effort, the Administrative Office Director, Judge John D. Bates, sent a communication to all federal judges informing them of these changes and encouraging judges to use OSCAR to accept applications online, post their positions, and maintain a current judge profile that communicates their hiring preferences. Even judges who do not recruit through OSCAR are encouraged to maintain a judge profile to broadly communicate clerkship openings and hiring preferences.If you have questions or comments about these changes, please contact the OSCAR Program Office at 866-666-2120 (toll free) or send an email to oscar-support@ao.uscourts.gov. For information on the OSCAR system, please remember to consult our extensive help resources, including quick reference guides, tip sheets, video tutorials, and online help.