Michigan·Legal Occupations·SOC 23-1012

Best Judicial Law Clerk programs in Michigan, ranked by enrollment

Assist judges in court or by conducting research or preparing legal.

6 schools in Michigan run programs that feed this job, graduating 1,035 people a year. The job pays a median of $62,260 in Michigan across about 280 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledLaw ClerkJudicial ClerkJudicial AssistantJudicial Law ClerkLegal ClerkLaw AssociateChancery ClerkDistrict Clerk
Graduates / yr
1,035
in Michigan
Median pay · Michigan
$62,260
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
280
people employed
Schools
6
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
67%
across those schools
Median net price
$16,109
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Michigan that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

1 programs in Michigan that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Michigan (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Michigan page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
1
CIP 22.0101In Michigan
1,035
100.0%
6

Top 6 schools in Michigan

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 0 of the 6 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI Public · 1 feeder programs
343Law93%16%
2Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI Public · 1 feeder programs
220Law81%85%
3University of Detroit Mercy
Detroit, MI Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
186Law67%$16,10975%
4Thomas M Cooley Law School
Lansing, MI Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
143Law
5Wayne State University
Detroit, MI Public · 1 feeder programs
128Law58%81%
6Baker College
Owosso, MI Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
15Law36%$15,49382%

All 6 schools in Michigan

Every school in Michigan with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Michigan that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
University of Michigan - Ann ArborAnn ArborPublic3431
Michigan State UniversityEast LansingPublic2201
University of Detroit MercyDetroitPrivate not-for-profit1861
Thomas M Cooley Law SchoolLansingPrivate not-for-profit1431
Wayne State UniversityDetroitPublic1281
Baker CollegeOwossoPrivate not-for-profit151

What judicial law clerks earn in Michigan

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Michigan
$62,260
Mean annual
$65,150
Jobs in state
280
What the range looks like
10th pct$48,690Median$62,26090th pct$83,380
Versus the national median
-4.1%

U.S. median $64,920. Michigan pays below the national figure.

Job concentration
0.76×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in Michigan

Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
$62,260median
120 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+2.5%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
1,000
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
400
14,500 → 14,900
Typical entry education
Doctoral or professional degree

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Judicial Law Clerks page.

How to become a Judicial Law Clerk

Job zone 5 of 5 · SVP 8.0 and above
Typical entry education
Doctoral or professional degree

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Top skills

Reading ComprehensionActive ListeningCritical ThinkingWritingSpeakingActive Learning

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Michigan

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 1 majors mapped to Judicial Law Clerks1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 22.0101Law

Common questions

Answers for people weighing judicial law clerks programs in Michigan.

What degree do you need to become a Judicial Law Clerk?+

Doctoral or professional degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Law, which awarded 1,035 degrees in Michigan in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming a Judicial Law Clerk?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Law. Together they graduate about 1,035 people a year in Michigan.

How much do judicial law clerks earn in Michigan?+

The median is $62,260 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 4.1% below the U.S. median of $64,920. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for judicial law clerks growing?+

BLS projects a +2.5% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 1,000 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Michigan?+

6 institutions in Michigan reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do judicial law clerks work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Law Clerk, Judicial Clerk, Judicial Assistant, Judicial Law Clerk among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 23-1012.

Programs in MichiganLaw

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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