Much has been written about disputes or “boycotts” of federal judges hiring clerks from particular law schools. But reviewing clerkships generally reveals that the debate right now is a niche subset of student employment opportunities.

It’s a very small subset of elite, “credentialed” clerkships in dispute at the moment. There are about 800 active federal judges not counting dozens, probably hundreds more active senior federal judges. They hire around 1200 or so recent law school graduates in term (one or two year) positions each year, not counting the many post-graduate hires or career clerks.

Schools like Montana, Alabama, Kentucky, Memphis, and West Virginia routinely outplace NYU, Georgetown, and Columbia as a percentage of their graduates going on to federal clerkships right after graduation.

But the dialogue is obsessive about Yale (which places around 50 graduates a year into federal clerkships, and many more after graduation), with a sliver of judges like Judge James Ho on the 5th Circuit. Why?

The subset of elite, “credentialed” clerkships.

A peril of a set of highly credentialed, very young, former Supreme Court clerks nominated to the federal judiciary of late is increasingly sharp elbow among judges to be on the next Supreme Court “short list” (which, most recently for a Republican administration, appeared to include around 40 names, which is hardly short). That’s increasing competition for elite, pedigreed clerks.

The discussions of these clerks, as hired through an ideological valence, about reverence for their former Supreme Court bosses, about being “feeders” of clerks to the Court, and so on, all run this channel. But in truth, it’s a tiny fraction of the clerkship opportunities for law school graduates.

So many clerkships are about geographical fit, about helping launch careers of new graduates into a federal territory where they’ll ultimately practice and be ambassadors for the court (not judge the judge). The vast majority of the federal docket, too, is not about abortion or other hot-button topics, but grinding through 922(g) sentencing or suppression hearings or Social Security appeals or immigration disputes. It’s a judge working very closely with a very small team to draft work product.

In the elite subset of credentialed clerkships, there’s a lot to say about judicial hiring practices, complaints about it, ideological screens and preferences, and so on. But the vast majority of the federal clerkship experience, and the work, is nothing like the debate over the narrow subset that’s attracting significant attention. To the extent there are calls for “reform,” I hope those in positions of authority are mindful of this disparity as the conversation continues to play out.