A law clerk is sometimes referred to as a judicial clerk and his or her work is to assist judges or lawyers to make legal decisions. What does a law clerk do? The duties of a law clerk generally depend on whether they are based on the trial court or appeals court dealing with criminal or civil cases.
Most roles of law clerks cut across and include duties like advising judges and on various cases, researching on legal precedents and past cases, taking statements and managing evidence, drafting legal documents, delivering subpoenas to relevant witnesses among other roles.
What are the qualifications for working as a paralegal?
Law clerks are usually holders of a Juris Doctor degree as well as a master’s degree in law. The common areas of study for law clerks are public policy and international law. Those intending to become law clerks normally start by applying for clerkships where they work for a lawyer or judge for at least one year.
In most cases, law clerks get on-the-job training. The law firm or court is the one to give instructions to law clerks on various processes related to their systems.
Below are steps on how to become a law clerk:
The process of becoming a certified law clerk can be divided into five steps.
Step 1: Obtain an undergraduate degree
Anyone aspiring to be a law clerk must first earn an undergraduate degree before going to a law school. Law schools generally don’t have specific requirements for any files of study. Nonetheless, laws schools often receive a lot of applications and only top students can get admission. As such, you need to ensure that you perform very well in your undergraduate degree.
Step 2: LSAT Exam
Before being admitted to any law school, aspiring law students are required to undertake and pass a Law School Admission Test (LSAT). The test normally involves three multiple-choice sections that cover analytical reasoning, comprehension, and logical reasoning. There is also a written essay that’s supposed to be presented to the law school alongside the test scores.
Step 3: Earn a Juris Doctorate
After being admitted to a law school, the next thing is to study and obtain a Juris Doctorate degree. It typically takes three years of full-time study for one to graduate from a law school.
Step 4: Passing the bar exams
Law school graduates must pass the bar exams of their respective states before they are allowed to practice law. Considering the fact that judicial law clerks are also mostly lawyers, graduates who wish to become law clerks must also take and pass bar exams.
Step 5: Acquire relevant experience
Most judges love working with law clerks who have a certain level of experience. Working as an intern or in a law firm prior to taking bar exams is a perfect way to fulfill this requirement. An aspiring law clerk should accept work that helps build his or her experience.
In a nutshell, there are several steps that one requires to undergo in order to become a law clerk. For starters, you can check out sites like ParalegalEDU.org.
