clerks often have class ranks that put them at, or near, the top of their graduating class. Pakistan The Supreme Court of Pakistan has an extensive and competitive program for the appointment of the Law Clerks/Research Associates. Applications are invited from all over Pakistan calling on fresh law graduates, Advocates and Barristers to submit their CVs, transcripts/degrees, three letters of recommendation and a legal writing sample. Applicants thereafter are shortlisted purely on merit and interviewed eventually by the scrutiny committee, consisting of senior judges and law clerks of the Court, before final appointment. In recent years, all law clerks appointed have been licensed advocates placed at the top of their class with excellent research credentials. Law clerks sit in court during hearings. In chambers, law clerks assist the judge in making determinations of law, conducting research, critically proof-reading the court orders and preparing briefs etc. Law clerks serve as paid staff of the court for an extendable one-year term. The Supreme Court has 17 law clerks for the year 2017-2018. In the Lahore High Court, many civil judges with master's degrees (mostly LLM) and post-graduate research experience are appointed as research associates equivalent to law clerks to the judges of the court. They function through the Research Centre of the Lahore High Court and assist all the judges in the various registry benches of the Lahore High Court. Philippines In the Supreme Court of the Philippines and the Philippine Court of Appeals, recent law graduates and young lawyers can apply for a position as a "Court Attorney" to a Justice. This position basically corresponds to what is called a "law clerk" at the Supreme Court of the United States. Each of the 15 Supreme Court justices has 5 to 10 court attorneys at any given time. Court attorneys at the Supreme Court of the Philippines are co-terminus with their justices. Some stay for one year or less, others stay for as long as their respective justice serves the Court. Previous court attorneys have become notable Justices themselves e.g. Justice Vicente V. Mendoza, Justice Antonio Abad etc. or have gone to hold important positions in the court such as Court Administrators or Deputy Court Administrators. Many of them have gone on to successful legal practice, in business, or in the academe. The position is an extremely difficult one to get accepted to because aside from the competence requirement, there is also