CLERKSHIPS & ALUMNI NETWORK

BIG BLUE WORLD

Wherever you go, our alumni are leaders in law firms, general counsels for major corporations, attorneys for government agencies, heads of nonprofits, judges, entrepreneurs, elected officials, and academics. In fact, it’s difficult to find a major city, industry, or legal specialty where you won’t encounter a loyal Duke Law graduate, and they love to give back. You’ll see them on campus nearly every day — speaking to, mentoring, and recruiting our students. They will share your experience of Duke’s collegial and intellectually rigorous culture, and will be eager to help you chart your future course.

Duke Law School’s network of 12,000 alumni is distinctly global. Our highest concentrations of graduates work in New York and Washington, D.C., but we also have large and thriving alumni communities in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley, as well as London, Paris, Brussels, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, and Buenos Aires.

CLERKING CULTURE

Duke has one of the best records of placement in clerkships of any law school.

About one-third of every graduating class will clerk for a state or federal judge after graduation or early in their legal career, and since 2010, 10 have gone on to clerkships on the U.S. Supreme Court. Our dedicated clerkship team and faculty clerkship committee work tirelessly to help students prepare their applications and get ready for interviews, and students have unique opportunities to meet and learn from sitting judges through our Bolch Judicial Institute and judicial studies master’s program.

“The opportunity to get a clerkship was an important factor in my law school decision. I’ll be spending my first year after graduation clerking on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. It wouldn’t have been possible without the invaluable support and guidance of my two clerkship advisors, Professor Joseph Blocher and Professor Sara Beale, who were there every step of the way.”

HAYLEY LAWRENCE JD/LLM ’21 is editor-in-chief of the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy.

38 members of the Duke Law class of 2019 were clerking 10 months after graduation

67 Duke Law graduates clerked in state and federal courts during the 2019-20 term