If you are interested in applying for judicial internships with either state or federal judges, the CDO has many online and print resources to help you with the application process. Please check this website regularly for updated information. Judges hire on varying schedules, but some federal judges begin looking at summer internship applications as early as late December/early January. State judges hire as late as April and May.

In early November, the CDO will mail out a survey to state and federal judges in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area requesting that judges provide information on their summer intern hiring needs and what students should submit as part of their application. The CDO will post this information on Symplicity in the “Jobs” section. To review the responses, log into Symplicity, click on “Jobs”, and then select “Judicial Internship” as the “Job Type.” You will see any openings that we have received for summer or academic year judicial internships. We also post a list of Judges who indicated they are not hiring interns.  Please note that judges on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit DO NOT hire interns, nor does the Supreme Court. Detailed instructions of how to use the job postings section of Symplicity can be found here.

While many judges do respond to our survey, we recommend that you do not limit your application to those judges. Rather, you should send out applications in a mass mailing to all judges on the courts in which you are interested. For those judges that have not specified their application materials, you can simply send a cover letter and resume (and a law school transcript when it becomes available). It is usually a good idea to send a list of 2-4 "References" with contact information. You can also send your writing sample, but that is optional unless specifically requested by the judge. If judges require additional materials, they will let you know.

In the past, the CDO has recommended that students hand deliver applications to local courthouses; however, this year the clerks' offices are not accepting applications to be delivered to individual judges. Therefore, students should MAIL their applications. Students have reported that applications are arriving as quickly as the day after being mailed.

Federal Judges

For the names and addresses of Federal Judges, we recommend that you use the database found on Symplicity under the “Clerkships” tab. You can search for specific judges, select your “favorites”, and export those names and addresses to an Excel spreadsheet that can be used to complete a mail merge. More detailed instructions on using the Symplicity clerkship database and how to do the mail merge can be found here. The CDO has created a cover letter template and a label template to use for this mail merge which you can save to your computer. When reviewing judges’ information, please click on the name of the judge and review the “Judge Details”. If that judge has indicated that he is not hiring interns, that information is in the “Notes” section. If that judge has filled out the judicial survey, the "Notes" section will indicate that you should check the “Jobs” section for a more detailed internship posting from that judge.

State Judges

For local DC Superior Court judges, the CDO has compiled an updated “DC Judge List” as an Excel spreadsheet that can be mail merged. For this mail merge, use the same cover letter template and label template. For other state judges, you must find the addresses either through individual state court websites, or directories available in the CDO Resource Library. The most comprehensive directory is The American Bench, which includes contact information for all state and federal judges. If you have any questions, ask your section counselor, or contact Sheila Driscoll, the Judicial Clerkship Advisor, at sdriscoll@law.gwu.edu.