---
title: "Judicial Law Clerk"
description: "Assist judges in court or by conducting research or preparing legal documents."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/judicial-law-clerk"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Judicial Law Clerk

**Category:** Legal · **SOC code:** 23-1012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 23-1012.00

Assist judges in court or by conducting research or preparing legal documents.

Also advertised as: Appellate Law Clerk; Career Judicial Law Clerk; Career Law Clerk; Judicial Assistant; Judicial Clerk; Judicial Law Clerk; Law Clerk; Law Researcher.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $64,920 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $31.21/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $46,180 to $113,140, with the middle half between $52,870 and $80,420
- **Total US employment:** 13,290
- **Typical entry education:** Doctorate
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +2.8% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,500 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 6/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 13,290 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $46,180 |
| 25th | $52,870 |
| 50th (median) | $64,920 |
| 75th | $80,420 |
| 90th | $113,140 |
| Mean (average) | $72,950 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MA | $143,350 | $135,547 | 500 |
| NY | $133,320 | $123,535 | 850 |
| CT | $98,670 | $95,232 | 270 |
| OR | $86,870 | $84,045 | 30 |
| ND | $85,530 | $96,145 | 40 |
| WA | $80,240 | $74,982 | 580 |
| AR | $80,150 | $92,193 | 50 |
| CA | $79,030 | $71,378 | 1,800 |
| ID | $75,540 | $79,104 | 60 |
| TN | $75,190 | $81,844 | 400 |
| MN | $71,070 | $72,064 | 410 |
| MD | $70,110 | $66,798 | 370 |
| NV | $69,600 | $69,615 | 70 |
| ME | $67,890 | $69,954 | 30 |
| AK | $67,580 | $66,023 | 140 |

24 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 39 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/judicial-law-clerk/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/judicial-law-clerk.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 14,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 14,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 400 jobs, or +2.8%. About as fast as average: 2.8% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,500 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Doctoral or professional degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Doctoral Degree | 51.9% |
| Post-Doctoral Training | 20.2% |
| First Professional Degree | 16.5% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 7.2% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 2.2% |
| Master's Degree | 2.1% |

## What the work involves

- Confer with judges concerning legal questions, construction of documents, or granting of orders.
- Review complaints, petitions, motions, or pleadings that have been filed to determine issues involved or basis for relief.
- Attend court sessions to hear oral arguments or record necessary case information.
- Prepare briefs, legal memoranda, or statements of issues involved in cases, including appropriate suggestions or recommendations.
- Keep abreast of changes in the law and inform judges when cases are affected by such changes.
- Research laws, court decisions, documents, opinions, briefs, or other information related to cases before the court.
- Respond to questions from judicial officers or court staff on general legal issues.
- Draft or proofread judicial opinions, decisions, or citations.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Law and Government — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 2.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Enterprising (E), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 5.10 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.51 |
| I — Investigative | 4.01 |
| S — Social | 3.38 |
| A — Artistic | 2.07 |
| R — Realistic | 1.60 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 73.2 |
| ESFJ | 69.1 |
| ENTJ | 67.5 |
| ISTJ | 62.7 |
| ISFJ | 61.5 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Lawyer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lawyer) — median $159,670
- [Judge](https://nuecareer.com/careers/judge) — median $153,990
- [Administrative Law Judge, Adjudicator, and Hearing Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/administrative-law-judge-adjudicator-and-hearing-officer) — median $117,860
- [Paralegal](https://nuecareer.com/careers/paralegal) — median $62,890
- [Legal Secretary and Administrative Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/legal-secretary-and-administrative-assistant) — median $55,570
- [Court Reporter and Simultaneous Captioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/court-reporter-and-simultaneous-captioner) — median $72,420
- [Arbitrator, Mediator, and Conciliator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/arbitrator-mediator-and-conciliator) — median $75,530
- [Equal Opportunity Representative and Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/equal-opportunity-representative-and-officer) — median $80,730
- [Law Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/law-teacher-postsecondary) — median $128,500
- [Fraud Examiner, Investigator and Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fraud-examiner-investigator-and-analyst) — median $81,100

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/judicial-law-clerk