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B. Preparing to Hire 2. Discussion with Court Staff

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This section focuses on judges wanting to work with a judicial law clerk for the first time. The judge A discussion with the court staff may help the judge determine the judicial law clerk’s duties. The
should evaluate the court’s needs before recruiting a clerk. The judge can assess the potential clerk’s court staff may be struggling to fulfill their duties. They may need help maintaining their case
duties by collecting in-house data. In addition, a discussion with the court staff will help the judge management system. They may be performing tasks that are outside their job description. Here are
determine whether a clerk is necessary. The court staff may give valuable insight on areas that need some helpful questions to discuss with the staff.
assistance. The judge will need to assess whether there is office space for an on-site clerk or whether
the clerk must work remotely. Lastly, the court must determine the clerk’s compensation.
Is the staff performing tasks that are more suitable for a judicial law clerk?

1. Collecting Data
Are there tasks that have proven extremely challenging for the court clerk?

An essential first step is to collect in-house data. Evaluating the court’s needs for a judicial law clerk
can be done in multiple ways. The court can collect data by reviewing the number of cases on the
docket. The judge may need to compile a list of reasons to justify hiring a clerk. This Guide provides Are there written tasks that the court clerk spends more
some helpful questions to help the judge make this determination. than half of the workday attempting to accomplish?

Is the court staff trained to do legal research?
Does the judge need help reviewing pleadings,

motions, briefs, transcripts, and recordings?
3. Court Facility

This section deals with the potential limitations of the tribal court’s facility. The judicial law clerk may
Are there specific areas of federal or tribal law not be able to work on-site due to lack of office space and/or nearby housing. In that case, a remote
in which the judge needs research assistance? clerkship may work. Remote work is increasingly common due to the world-wide dislocation caused

by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many law students and attorneys are now accustomed to working
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remotely via virtual meeting platforms such as Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet.

Does the court need to update its public resources Of course, there are disadvantages to remote work. An on-site judicial law clerk develops a trusting
collaboration with the judge plus first-hand knowledge of the tribal court. A clerk’s work in the tribal
and documents for pro se litigants, community can have lasting effects. A clerk may feel unfulfilled by a remote clerkship, so this is an
attorneys, and court staff? important discussion to have with a potential clerk before a clerkship starts.

4. Compensation

Can the tribal court benefit from
special projects like summarizing There is no published salary table for judicial law clerks in Indian country, so compensation will vary
from tribe to tribe. Some tribes can pay competitive clerk wages, and others cannot. Nonetheless,
and indexing judicial decisions, there is a market for clerkships. Many Native American law students and new attorneys may be
developing proposed amendments to actively seeking tribal clerkships despite low wages. The opportunity to work for tribal justice can
tribal rules, and updating the tribal library? outweigh the pay scale. A tribal court may want to research the salaries of clerks in local tribes in
order to make their clerkship regionally competitive.

Based on the job description, the tribe’s human resources (HR) office may conduct a market study.
Market studies measure the range of compensation for similar positions in the relevant job market.
This range of compensation is applied to the selected candidate’s experience and education
and a figure is selected within that range. If the position is grant-funded, a market study may be
unnecessary.

61 Case & Tompkins, supra note 1, at 42. 62 PLSI Judicial Clerkship Handbook, supra note 2, at 20.
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