The OSCAR Program Office will soon perform its annual system archiving to prepare for next year's law clerk hiring season.
As part of this process:
- Accounts that have not registered activity within the year are put into archived status, and
- Unused and archived accounts are deleted from the system.
This clean up helps improve system performance and makes space for new applicants, positions, and applications. Be on the lookout for additional communications with more details.
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Law Schools: Please make sure your Law School Profile is up to date, including your website, main point of contact, and other relevant details. Judges may refer this information when reviewing applications, and the AO uses this for direct communications to your law school point of contact.
To update your law school profile, log into OSCAR:
- Click on Your Name in the top right corner.
- In the dropdown, click Law School Profile.
- Click Edit to update information about your law school.
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On June 10, 2025, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts released finalized class-of-2026 law-clerk applications to judges, per the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan.
We welcome feedback from law schools to help us improve the clerkship application process.
The OSCAR Program Office continues to enhance training and user support for our law school partners. A dedicated resource page is available to assist law school administrators (LSAs) along with catered online help.
To navigate to LSA Resources once logged into your OSCAR homepage:
- Go to the left hand navigation under Training > LSA Resource Page, or
- Left hand navigation under Help > LSA Help.
What is an AGD?
Applicants can register for an OSCAR account with an Alternate Graduation Date (AGD) designation if they are joint-degree, part-time, or other law school students with 2 years of law school grades and an alternate graduation date. The law school administrator from the AGD applicant's law school must confirm their AGD status before OSCAR can create the account.
How do applicants request an account?
All applicants requesting AGD status will need electronic approval from their law school career office to confirm their AGD status.
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Applicants can create an account on the OSCAR home page. Click Register to begin.
- Under Educational Information, select Yes for Alternate Graduation Date:
- Use the dropdown menus under Alternate Graduation Date of JD/LLB to select the expected date of your JD/LLB degree.
- Complete the remaining fields and click Submit.
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Once complete, the applicant will receive an email from OSCAR confirming the request for an AGD account. Once the request is approved by the law school administrator, the applicant will get a second email with confirmation of the approval and the login information for the new account.
Find more information in the Registering for an AGD Account help article.
Distribute Customized Position Lists to Applicants Through OSCAR
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Use the “shared search” tool to share open positions in OSCAR with your law students, filtered by the parameters of your choice (e.g., geographical boundaries, judge type, etc.)
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In the left navigation, go to the Judicial Directory
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Click Judges or Staff Attorney Offices. Once you have identified your search criteria and filters click the +Create Saved Search on the right to begin.
For more guidance on how to share saved searches in OSCAR:
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On April 28, 2025, OSCAR version 5.5 introduced new limits on recommendation requests based on feedback from our law school partners.
- Applicants may not request more letters than the number specified for a position (maximum of 5).
- If a position lists “0” required letters, applicants may still request up to 5 letters or references.
Action Required: Advise applicants to review each position description carefully and tailor their requests accordingly.
Learn more in our help article: Managing Recommendations
Clerkship hiring is year-round! Search for clerkships using OSCAR's tools to explore available opportunities.
Visit your Positions List to find all available clerkships and staff attorney roles, along with advanced search, sort, and filer options.
Are you a law school administrator who is new to OSCAR or in need of a refresher on using the system? The OSCAR Program Office offers one-on-one or group training sessions to help users become familiar with the system. If you would like to set up a training session, click the Request a training session option on your homepage and fill out the request form in the OSCAR Training Portal. Our trainer will respond quickly and work with you to schedule a session.
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