Anonymous User wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 9:55 pmYeah I've seen that too. And it makes sense when you think about it! Judges are full of themselves. Lawyers in general are bad managers but it's gotta be worse for judges. And it's only a year so they have no motivation to train you in.lavarman84 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 9:45 pmFrom what I've noticed, most of the regrets are from people who had a judge who was either a bad boss or an indifferent boss. But there are certainly people who clerk for great judges who find the experience boring and unenjoyable.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 8:11 pmI haven't experienced either but it seems like most of the "regrets" are from district. Maybe it can just vary more? Or maybe I just don't have a good sample size.
There are lots of awesome judges, too, though. I don’t think judges are any worse managers than other lawyers, and they have a pretty clear motive to train their clerks because the clerks work directly for them and contribute significantly to their work.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 9:55 pmYeah I've seen that too. And it makes sense when you think about it! Judges are full of themselves. Lawyers in general are bad managers but it's gotta be worse for judges. And it's only a year so they have no motivation to train you in.lavarman84 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 9:45 pmFrom what I've noticed, most of the regrets are from people who had a judge who was either a bad boss or an indifferent boss. But there are certainly people who clerk for great judges who find the experience boring and unenjoyable.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 8:11 pmI haven't experienced either but it seems like most of the "regrets" are from district. Maybe it can just vary more? Or maybe I just don't have a good sample size.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of crappy judges who are bad managers and/or indifferent to their clerks. I agree that most people who have bad experience clerking probably have unpleasant or difficult judges. But I don’t think people talking about their bad experiences here suggests that most people hate their clerkships and that it’s because judges are predominantly bad bosses.
(That said, I realize probably more people have a bad time than talk about it because of the taboo/negative career consequences of speaking ill about judges, but I still don’t think that translates to *most* judges being bad bosses.)
Like it’s worth noting that the OP and
other unhappy clerk here didn’t say anything about not liking their judges. So I think it’s entirely possible to like your judge but hate the work. Or they are also struggling with their judges but didn’t go into that, maybe because of the risk.