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Law360 (November 13, 2020, 3:16 PM EST) -- The Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan, a pilot program meant to make the process of hiring law clerks for judges more transparent and streamlined, has been extended until June 2022, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts announced Thursday.
The plan, which is a set of guidelines that are voluntary for judges, uses the Online System for Clerkship Application and Review, and as of 2017 defers the clerk hiring process until after a student's second year of law school.
After the pilot program ends in June 2022, judges can choose whether to continue using it. After June 2021, judges can also choose whether they would like to keep a clerkship offer open for 24 hours instead of the 48 hours that is required now.
The plan was first put in place in 2003 and faced a tumultuous path, which included it being discontinued in 2014 and being revived in 2018.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Judge Merrick B. Garland said in a statement that the plan gives judges the "opportunity to see a larger universe of applicants and ensures that we are better able to evaluate them."
Judge Garland sits on the ad hoc committee of federal judges that's responsible for the hiring plan, along with Second Circuit Judge Robert A. Katzmann, First Circuit Judge David J. Barron, Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas, and Seventh Circuit Judge Diane P. Wood.
The program is designed to boost diversity in the clerk hiring process by creating a uniform application platform for candidates. Judge Garland said pushing the application process until after a candidate's second year of law school also allows students to gain credentials before applying.
"It also provides more equal opportunities for students whose parents are not white-collar professionals and hence do not have as good information about the value of clerking or the process of applying," he said.
The program has been lauded by law schools and judges who opt in because it saves court staff time, helps to ensure transparency and adds diversity to applicant pools. The National Association of Law Placement said in a statement to Law360 that they "fully support" the two-year extension of the pilot plan.
Carl W. Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who has written extensively about the plan, told Law360 the biggest issue the program has faced is a lack of uniformity. Judges, who are protected by Title III of the Constitution, have been difficult to convince to use the plan.
According to Tobias, the plan has been most popular in six circuits: the first, second, third, seventh, ninth and the District of Columbia.
"That's been the problem: having enough judges stick to the plan so people won't break from the plan," he said.
--Editing by Alyssa Miller.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
