--- title: "Conservative Judges Hiring Clerks Before 1L Exams Because Ideology Is The Only Grade That Matters" author: "Joe Patrice" published_at: "2026-04-15T20:01:00+00:00" link: "https://abovethelaw.com/2026/04/conservative-judges-hiring-clerks-before-1l-exams-because-ideology-is-the-only-grade-that-matters/" feed: "https://abovethelaw.com/feed/" clawfeed: "https://agent.clawfeeds.com/feed/6l2j-zrhq-h4rr.md" feed_url: "https://agent.clawfeeds.com/feed/6l2j-zrhq-h4rr.md" categories: ["Law Schools","Clerkships","Courts","Federalist Society","Harvard Law School"] --- # Conservative Judges Hiring Clerks Before 1L Exams Because Ideology Is The Only Grade That Matters Two flavors of federal clerkship have emerged at Harvard Law. One based on accumulating consistent academic success across a couple years worth of legal education, and another based on demonstrating a firm ideological commitment in the student’s 1L year. As the [Harvard Crimson reports](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/14/federal-clerkships-earlier-timeline/), moderate and liberal judges follow the former path, selecting rising 3Ls based on law school resumes, while America’s most conservative judges are hiring students as early as their first semester based on Federalist Society bona fides and vetting from fellow traveler professors or older students. So, in news that isn’t shocking in the least, the same people who complain about “DEI” are the ones hiring based on networking connections without regard to academic merit. It’s the most powerful affirmative action program in education, you just have to be the *right* kind of diverse. > “My understanding is that there were students in my section who, through Fed Soc, had clerkships lined up the fall of 1L,” Kaufman said. “There is no liberal student for whom that’s the case.” “Fall of 1L.” As in, “no exams yet.” But if a student has dutifully done their part to enthusiastically [cheer the speaker discussing why America needs fewer minorities](https://abovethelaw.com/2026/04/cornell-federalist-society-invites-white-supremacy-speaker-because-thats-what-federalist-society-chapters-do/), you might just earn a coveted clerkship before the class reaches *Palsgraf*. Or, hell, maybe before the class finds the bookstore. Judges breaking away from “the plan” to recruit students earlier in their law school careers isn’t new. Every attempt to reach a mutually agreed upon schedule for clerkship applications has devolved into a free-for-all as some judges defect to secure first dibs on the talent pool. But the ideological divide is new, and reflects shifting priorities as conservative judges increasingly prioritize philosophy and connections over scholarly success. And yet… is anyone surprised? Over the course of two Trump terms, the GOP has deprioritized qualifications and experience. This isn’t to say that all of Trump’s nominees for the bench are unqualified — many are highly competent — but as the nominations mounted, the willingness to tab unqualified nominees grew. Now they’re [rejecting the ABA’s role in evaluating judicial picks](https://abovethelaw.com/2025/05/doj-ditches-aba-judicial-vetting-because-being-qualified-is-too-woke/) and putting up [nominees for trial judge who’ve never run a trial](https://abovethelaw.com/2026/04/aba-hands-trump-nominee-unqualified-reality-check/). In his second term, Trump has [favored individuals personally loyal to him](https://abovethelaw.com/2025/05/trump-reportedly-eyes-emil-bove-for-third-circuit-as-were-now-wistful-for-era-of-random-unqualified-fedsoc-hacks/) over any other qualification. When the judiciary prioritizes ideology over qualifications, of course the clerkships will follow. Mason R. Laney, a Federalist Society member interviewed by the Crimson notes: > “We vet each other, because we know each other very well,” Laney said. > > “Students end up with a lot of power, where judges will reach out, and they’ll say, ‘Is this person somebody we should reach out to?’” he added. > > Those recommendations can shape hiring decisions well before the timeline begins. > > “Students around will say, ‘Hey, they’re solid, conservative, they’re very much in Fed Soc,’” Laney said. Federal judges placing clerkship decisions in the hands of 3Ls delivering vibechecks is a damning indictment. It was bad enough when judges hired the nephews of their country club friends, now they’re hiring based on the considered judgment of kids who aren’t old enough to rent a car. > “One of them requires a meritocratic approach and a lot of hard work,” HLS student Jackson S. Faulkner said. “You have to bank on things way later on in the process that are not available to the other side, which is looking for ideological adherence, and then they will train you to be a clerk.” This is a generous read, but what “training” is happening when the judge doesn’t know what they’re doing either? And even if the judge does have ample experience for their job, what faith can one have in their mentorship — or judgment — if they’ve blown off grades to hire a student based on how well they’ve impressed the 3Ls? Worse, this is a cycle likely to compound upon itself as tomorrow’s judges are picked from today’s clerks. In some cases literally, like when Trump was elevating clerks to the federal bench [only a term removed from their clerkship](https://abovethelaw.com/2020/09/shocking-no-one-aba-thinks-biglaw-associate-not-ready-for-federal-bench/). When he was the dean of NYU, John Sexton would tell the story that after clerking for Warren Burger, the Chief Justice would quip about needing to always have one “communist clerk.” But when judges start to view the clerkship process as less about untangling thorny legal issues — [AI can do all the disingenuous originalist reverse engineering anyway](https://abovethelaw.com/2024/04/originalist-judge-hails-future-where-time-consuming-task-of-compiling-fake-history-is-replaced-by-ai-hallucinations/) — and more about building out the conservative legal network, they don’t need to be challenged in chambers. Clerks don’t need to be academic superstars, as long as they can be reliably groomed into future branches of the judge’s “coaching tree.” There’s no easy way to do this, but law school rankings (and, more to the point, prospective students) really should try to take this two-tiered approach into account. There are definitely institutions spamming right-wing clerkships like this and using those numbers to artificially fluff their rankings. If a law school takes a significant jump in the rankings along with a sizable bump in its clerkship figures, take a long, hard look at WHICH judges are driving that boom. If it’s a bunch of Fifth Circuit judges hiring clerks in their first year of school, be very leery of that resume. This is also why the employers who haven’t already upped their scrutiny of past clerkships need a reality check. When federal judges ranked not qualified are “training” clerks they picked up before first semester exams, that’s not the same signal of future success that the industry relied upon for decades. A clerkship simply isn’t enough anymore, and employers need to develop their own two-track system for evaluating the quality of the clerkship experience. Until there’s more transparency about this, networking with conservatives remains a law school cheat code. Who needs meritocracy when you can get beers with FedSoc 3Ls? [Conservative Judges’ Early Hiring Fuels Two-Track Clerkship System at Harvard Law](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/14/federal-clerkships-earlier-timeline/) \[Harvard Crimson\] **Earlier**: [Donald Trump’s Devaluation Of The Federal Clerkship](https://abovethelaw.com/2020/03/donald-trumps-devaluation-of-the-federal-clerkship/) --- ***![Headshot](https://abovethelaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Headshot-300x200.jpg)[Joe Patrice](http://abovethelaw.com/author/joe-patrice/) is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of [Thinking Like A Lawyer](http://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/thinking-like-a-lawyer/). Feel free to [email](mailto:joepatrice@abovethelaw.com) any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/josephpatrice) or [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/joepatrice.bsky.social) if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a [Managing Director at RPN Executive Search](https://www.rpnexecsearch.com/josephpatrice).*** The post [Conservative Judges Hiring Clerks Before 1L Exams Because Ideology Is The Only Grade That Matters](https://abovethelaw.com/2026/04/conservative-judges-hiring-clerks-before-1l-exams-because-ideology-is-the-only-grade-that-matters/) appeared first on [Above the Law](https://abovethelaw.com/).