In collaboration with the American Bar Association's Judicial Division, PSLawNet is serving as a free clearinghouse of opportunities for deferred law firm associates with judges - on the federal and state levels - in courthouses across the country.  Below please find background information for 1) judges and judicial staff and 2) deferred associates seeking opportunities.

Information for Judges and Judicial Staff

What is PSLawNet?

PSLawNet is an online public service job database and “virtual career center” for law students and attorneys.  It is administered by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), a nonprofit member organization.  There is no charge for students and alumni of PSLawNet’s 200 subscriber law schools to access the database.  Nor is there a charge for public service employer organizations to post job opportunities.  Over 100,000 law students and attorneys are registered as job-seekers on PSLawNet.  Over 12,000 employer organizations - ranging from nonprofit law offices and advocacy organizations to government entities in all three branches and on the local, state, and federal levels – are profiled on PSLawNet.  The website is seen as a go-to place for individuals in the legal world seeking public service career opportunities.

Creating an Online Profile and Posting Opportunity Listings for Deferred Law Firm Associates

In response to the phenomenon of deferred law firm associates seeking public service placements, PSLawNet has operated as a free clearinghouse of opportunities for associates to link up with public interest placement organizations.  We are delighted to extend this same free service to judges and courthouses.  Posting an opportunity listing for deferred associates is a simple, two-step process that should take no more than 30 minutes.  The first step is creating an “employer organization” profile.  For these purposes, a judge’s chambers would be considered an employer organization.  The second step is using PSLawNet’s job-posting template to post specific information about the opportunity for deferred associates.  IMPORTANT NOTE: When posting an opportunity, the most important thing to remember is to select "Law Firm Associate Host" from the template's "Job Type" field.   For help, click on our illustrated user guide below.

Helpful Resources

• Illustrated User Guide for Judges and Judicial Staff - How to Post Opportunities for Deferred Associates
• Federal Judicial Advisory Opinion on Use of Deferred Associates

Information for Associates Seeking Opportunities

Alumni of the 200 PSLawNet subscriber law schools can create a “Job Seeker” account on PSLawNet at no charge. Go to the PSLawNet homepage – www.pslawnet.org – and click on the “New User?–Job Seekers” link on the right side of the page. Those who are not subscriber school graduates should contact us directly at pslawnet@nalp.org.

After registering and logging in to PSLawNet, a “User Options” menu will appear on the left side of your screen. Within that menu, click on “Search Opportunities.” This will take you to a job-searching template.

IMPORTANT: Once registered, you will see that on the job-searching template you may search by various criteria in different search fields. One of the first fields in the template is called “Job Type.” Scroll down on this menu and select “Law Firm Associate Host.” This is the job type that judges will use to advertise openings for deferred associates.  Please note that public interest organizations are also posting opportunities for deferred associates, so you will see opportunity postings from both sources.  You may narrow your search further by geography and by opportunity posting dates.  After you have selected the job type “Law Firm Associate Host” you may further narrow your search geographically and by practice area.