Was the third time the charm for the latest effort to organize a federal judicial clerk hiring plan?

Last week marked the third go-around for the current Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan—a pilot program launched in 2019 under which participating judges wait until a designated day in June to accept, interview and extend offers to clerk hopefuls with at least two years of law school under their belts. The Administrative Office of U.S. Courts hasn't released figures on the number of federal judges adhering to the voluntary plan, but clerkship watchers say it seems that more judges—and judges from more parts of the country—opted to follow the hiring timeline this year. That bodes well for the long-term future of the hiring plan pilot, which at the moment has only been extended through 2022.