Law Clerk Job Description Templates
Free law clerk job description templates: law firm, entry-level law student, and corporate in-house. With FLSA classification and pay transparency. DOCX.
Law Clerk Job Description Templates
3 free templates: law firm clerk, entry-level law student, and corporate in-house, with the FLSA classification call and pay-transparency notes built in. Download as DOCX.
The law clerk job description is one most firms copy from a generic template that blends two different roles into one, missing the question that actually matters: are you hiring a law firm clerk or a judicial clerk? They share a title but almost nothing else. The role most generic templates describe is the judicial clerk, a court position, while what a small firm actually needs is a law firm clerk, usually a law student supporting your attorneys. And almost no template addresses the real trap: whether the role is exempt or non-exempt from overtime.
At FirstHR, we build templates that get these distinctions right. The three templates below cover the private-firm reality: a general law firm clerk, an entry-level law student clerk, and a corporate in-house clerk, each with the FLSA classification call and a pay-transparency reminder built in. Fill in the brackets and post, and the guide to writing a job description covers the fundamentals.
Judicial Clerk vs Law Firm Clerk
The first thing to get right is which law clerk you mean, because the title covers two very different roles and most templates blur them. A judicial law clerk works for a judge in a court, and a law firm clerk works at a private firm or in-house legal team. They are not interchangeable.
The judicial clerk is the role federal labor data tracks, and it is almost entirely a government and court occupation, not a private-business hire. The law firm clerk, the role these templates are built for, is usually a current law student or recent graduate supporting attorneys with research and writing for a year or two before becoming an attorney. If you are a firm or a company hiring someone to help your lawyers, you want the firm-clerk version on this page, not a judicial-clerk template written for a courthouse. Getting this right keeps your posting accurate and attracts the right candidates.
What a Law Clerk Does
A law clerk supports attorneys with legal research, writing, and case preparation under supervision. The clerk researches issues, drafts memos and pleadings for attorney review, cite-checks documents, organizes case files, and assists with discovery and case prep, all while working under attorney supervision and not providing legal advice or representing clients.
The boundary matters: a law clerk is not a licensed attorney, so the role is built around research and writing, not advising clients or appearing in court on their own. That is why a clerkship is usually a one-to-two-year stepping stone held by a law student or recent graduate. The work itself stays consistent across settings; what changes is the firm and the practice area, which is why the templates below differ by setting. For scoping the role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Law Clerk Duties and Responsibilities
Law clerk duties center on four areas: research, writing and drafting, case support, and the boundaries that define the role. Every clerk position shares these, with the practice area setting the specifics. These are the duties grouped the way the templates use them.
A strong posting grounds these in your firm: your practice area, your research tools, and the level of supervision. It also states the boundary clearly, that the clerk works under attorney supervision and does not give legal advice, since that protects both the firm and the clerk. Candidates read a law-clerk posting for the practice area, the level, and the schedule before applying.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by your setting. The clerk core, research, writing, case support, runs through all three, but the schedule, the supervision, and the qualifications differ enough by setting that the matched version reads more credibly. Use this guide to choose.
3 Free Law Clerk Job Description Templates
Download all three as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: firm overview, position summary, key responsibilities, qualifications, classification, compensation, and how to apply. Fill in the brackets, make the classification call, and post.
Template 1: Law Firm Clerk (General)
The standard private-firm version: a law student or recent graduate supporting attorneys with research, drafting, and case preparation. The right base for most small and solo firms.
Template 2: Entry-Level / Law Student Clerk
For a current law student, part-time during the school year or full-time over the summer. Supervised, hands-on, and usually non-exempt given the mixed-duty work.
Template 3: Corporate / In-House Law Clerk
For a company's in-house legal team: research, contract review, and compliance support under general counsel. Suits a clerk interested in corporate practice.
Exempt or Non-Exempt? The Classification Trap
Whether a law clerk is exempt from overtime is one of the trickiest classification calls in employment law, and it turns on the duties and the degree, not the title. This is the single most valuable thing to get right, and the one almost no template addresses.
| Situation | Typical classification |
|---|---|
| Licensed attorney practicing law | Exempt (salary tests do not apply) |
| JD-holder doing substantive legal work | Can be exempt (learned professional) |
| Part-time law student, mixed duties | Usually non-exempt (overtime-eligible) |
| Clerk doing routine or clerical work | Non-exempt |
Under the FLSA learned professional exemption, law is a recognized field of science or learning, so a JD-holder doing junior-attorney-type work, drafting pleadings, conducting legal research, can be exempt even without bar admission, and courts have upheld exactly this. But a clerk doing routine work, or one without the degree, generally does not qualify and is owed overtime. For a part-time law student doing mixed duties, the safest default is non-exempt, and the exempt vs non-exempt guide covers the broader test. Classify the specific role by its actual duties. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm with an employment attorney, since states like California apply their own rules.
Pay Transparency in Postings
A growing number of states require employers to include a good-faith pay range in job postings, and several set employee thresholds low enough to catch a small or solo firm. If you are in a covered state, your law-clerk posting may legally need a range.
As of 2026, more than a dozen states plus Washington, D.C. have statewide pay-transparency laws, and the triggering size can be small, some apply at as few as five employees, others at ten, fifteen, twenty-five, or thirty. A small firm in a covered state posting a law-clerk role may be required to publish a salary or hourly range rather than leaving it blank or writing competitive pay. Before you post, check whether your state has a pay-transparency requirement and what employee count triggers it, then include a specific, good-faith range if it applies. The templates include a pay field with that reminder. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm your state's current rule and effective date, since these laws have been changing quickly.
Law Clerk vs Paralegal vs Legal Assistant
Three legal-support roles, often confused, with different education, career paths, and permanence. Naming the right one gets you the right candidates. Here is how they compare.
| Role | Background | Typical tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Law Clerk | Law student or recent JD | 1-2 years, attorney track |
| Paralegal | Paralegal certificate or degree | Long-term career professional |
| Legal Assistant | Administrative and legal support | Long-term, ongoing |
A law clerk is on the attorney track and usually transient, while a paralegal and a legal assistant are typically permanent team members. None of them can give legal advice or represent clients, since none is a licensed attorney, and they tend to classify differently for overtime, a paralegal generally does not qualify as an exempt learned professional. For a small firm, the question is whether you need short-term, research-heavy help from someone on the attorney track or ongoing legal support from a career professional. Match the title and the job description to which one you actually need.
How to Write a Law Clerk Job Description
A strong law-clerk posting starts before the duties, with confirming you mean a firm clerk and making the classification call. Here is the process the templates are built around. If this is among your first hires, the guide to hiring your first employee covers the steps around the posting.
Law Clerk Pay
Law clerk pay varies widely by setting, region, and whether the role is part-time, so a range set to your situation beats any single national number. The available federal data measures a different role, which is worth understanding before you benchmark.
Private law firm clerks, often part-time law students, are commonly paid hourly at local market rates that reflect the firm's size and region more than any national figure. For your posting, benchmark to local rates for a law student or recent graduate in your area, decide whether the role is hourly or salaried, and include a good-faith range where your state requires it. National compensation surveys and your local law-school career office can both help you set a competitive number.
Hiring for a Small Firm
For a small or solo firm, hiring a law clerk comes down to a few things generic templates skip: confirming you mean a firm clerk, getting the overtime classification right, checking your state's pay-transparency rule, and onboarding a short-term, confidentiality-sensitive hire. Here is what actually matters.
After You Hire: Onboarding
The job description is step one, and even a part-time, temporary law student is a W-2 employee, so the onboarding follows the same path as any hire, with confidentiality front and center. Send an offer letter that states the pay, the classification, and the supervised, non-advice scope; collect the signed offer; complete Form I-9 within the first days along with the rest of the new hire paperwork; and gather tax forms.
A confidentiality agreement matters more here than in most roles, since a clerk handles privileged client files from day one, so have it signed before the clerk starts. Then onboard the clerk into the firm: the systems, the research tools, the active matters, and the deadlines, alongside the usual onboarding documents. Because clerkships are short, a structured start pays off quickly, so a 30-60-90 day plan helps, the kind of structured start the employee onboarding guide describes. Once terms are agreed, the offer letter template handles the core terms, and the contract template covers a confidentiality agreement. FirstHR handles this for a small or solo firm: generate the offer letter and confidentiality agreement and send them for e-signature, store the signed documents, and run an onboarding workflow. FirstHR does not run payroll or administer benefits, so pair it with your payroll provider. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a law clerk do?
A law clerk supports attorneys with legal research, writing, and case preparation under supervision. The core work is consistent: researching cases, statutes, and legal issues; drafting memos, pleadings, and correspondence for attorney review; summarizing cases and depositions; cite-checking and proofreading documents; organizing case files; and assisting with discovery and case prep. A law clerk works under attorney supervision and does not provide legal advice or represent clients, since a clerk is not a licensed attorney. The emphasis shifts by setting. A law firm clerk supports a private firm's attorneys. An entry-level or law-student clerk does the same work part-time while finishing a degree. A corporate or in-house clerk supports a company's legal team with research, contract review, and compliance. Across all of them, the role is a stepping stone, typically held by a current law student or recent graduate for one to two years before becoming an attorney. This page offers a template for each of these three versions.
What is the difference between a judicial law clerk and a law firm clerk?
They are two different roles that share a title, and confusing them is the most common mistake in a law-clerk posting. A judicial law clerk works for a judge in a court, conducting research and preparing documents for the bench; this is the role federal labor statistics track, and it is almost entirely a government and court occupation rather than a private-business hire. A law firm clerk works at a private law firm or a company's in-house legal team, usually a current law student or recent graduate, supporting attorneys with research, writing, and case preparation. If you are a firm or a business hiring someone to help your lawyers, you want a law firm clerk, and the templates on this page are written for that role, not for a courthouse position. The distinction matters for your posting because a judicial-clerk template, which most generic templates lean toward, describes a court setting, prestige-track applicants, and duties that will not match what a small firm actually needs. Pick the firm-clerk version and your posting will read correctly to the candidates you want.
Is a law clerk exempt or non-exempt from overtime?
It depends on the duties and the degree, not the title, and it is one of the trickiest classification calls in employment law. Under the FLSA learned professional exemption, law is a recognized field of science or learning, so a JD-holder doing substantive legal work, drafting pleadings, conducting legal research, performing junior-attorney-type duties, can be exempt even without bar admission, and courts have upheld this. A licensed attorney actually practicing law is squarely exempt, and the salary tests do not even apply to a bona fide practitioner of law. But the trap runs the other way: a law clerk doing routine or clerical work, or one without the law degree, generally does not qualify and is non-exempt, meaning overtime-eligible. For a part-time law student doing mixed-duty work, the safest default is non-exempt. Exemption is defensible mainly for a JD-holder doing genuinely substantive legal work. Because the call turns on actual duties, classify the specific role honestly rather than assuming the title makes it exempt. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm with an employment attorney, since some states apply stricter professional-exemption rules.
Do I need to include a salary range in a law clerk job posting?
Possibly, depending on your state. As of 2026, more than a dozen states plus Washington, D.C. have enacted statewide pay-transparency laws that require employers to include a good-faith pay range in job postings, and several set employee thresholds low enough to catch a small or solo firm, some at as few as five employees, others at ten, fifteen, twenty-five, or thirty. If your firm is in a covered state and meets the threshold, you are legally required to publish a salary or hourly range in the law-clerk posting rather than leaving it blank or writing competitive pay. Before you post, check whether your state has a pay-transparency requirement and what employee count triggers it, then add a specific, good-faith range if it applies. The templates on this page include a pay field with a reminder to add a range where required. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm your state's current rule and effective date, since these laws have been changing quickly and the specific thresholds and lists vary by source.
Do law clerks need a law degree or bar admission?
A law clerk typically needs to be a current law student or a recent law-school graduate, but bar admission is not required. The common qualification is current enrollment in an accredited law school or a completed JD, since the role is built around legal research and writing skills that law school develops. What a law clerk cannot do is practice law: a clerk is not a licensed attorney, so they may not provide legal advice or represent clients, and that boundary should be stated in the job description and respected in practice. This is exactly why a clerkship is usually a one-to-two-year stepping stone, held while finishing school or in the period between graduation and bar admission, after which the person becomes an attorney. For your posting, set the requirement as current law-school enrollment or a JD, note that bar admission is not required, and make the supervised, non-advice scope of the role explicit so candidates and supervising attorneys share the same understanding of what the clerk will and will not do.
What is the difference between a law clerk and a paralegal?
The main differences are education, career path, and how long the role lasts. A law clerk is typically a current law student or recent JD graduate using the role as a one-to-two-year stepping stone toward becoming an attorney, focused on legal research and writing under attorney supervision. A paralegal is a longer-term career professional, often with a paralegal certificate or degree rather than a law degree, who handles substantive legal support work, document preparation, case management, client coordination, on an ongoing basis. Neither can give legal advice or represent clients, since neither is a licensed attorney. The practical implications differ: a law clerk is a transient, often part-time hire sourced through law schools, while a paralegal is usually a permanent, full-time member of the team. They also tend to classify differently for overtime, and a paralegal generally does not qualify as an exempt learned professional. For a small firm deciding between them, the question is whether you need short-term, research-heavy help from someone on the attorney track or ongoing legal support from a career professional. Match the title and the job description to which one you actually need.
How much does a law clerk make?
Pay varies widely by setting, region, and whether the role is part-time, so a range set to your specific situation is more useful than a single number. Federal wage data tracks judicial law clerks, who work for courts rather than private firms, and reports a median annual wage around $57,490 in recent data with a mean closer to $72,950, but that measures the government court occupation, not the private-firm law-student clerks these templates are written for. Private law firm clerks, often part-time law students, are commonly paid hourly, and their pay reflects local market rates, the firm's size, and the region more than any national figure. For context, lawyers, the role most clerks are working toward, had a median annual wage of about $151,160. For your posting, benchmark to local rates for a law student or recent graduate in your area, decide whether the role is hourly or salaried, and include a good-faith pay range where your state's pay-transparency law requires it. National compensation surveys and your local law-school career office can both help you set a competitive number.
What happens after I hire a law clerk?
Even though a law clerk is often part-time, temporary, and a law student, the person is still a W-2 employee, so the onboarding follows the same path as any hire, with confidentiality especially important given the client matters involved. Send an offer letter that states the pay, the classification, and the supervised, non-advice scope of the role; collect the signed offer; complete Form I-9 within the first days; and gather tax forms like the W-4. A confidentiality agreement matters more here than in most roles, since a clerk handles privileged client files from day one, so have it signed before the clerk starts. Then onboard the clerk into the firm: the systems, the research tools, the active matters, the deadlines, and the expectations. Because clerkships are short and the person is still learning, a structured start pays off quickly. FirstHR handles this for a small or solo firm: generate the offer letter and confidentiality agreement and send them for e-signature, store the signed documents, and run an onboarding workflow. FirstHR does not run payroll or administer benefits, so pair it with your payroll provider. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.