Best and worst judges to clerk for Forum

[Anonymous User]

How was everyones cjra time

[Anonymous User]

Interesting. Did the 5th Circuit finally do him in? Or did his dementia and craziness finally catch up with him?

At least initially, he pulled back because of family health issues. I can't speak to his motivation in basically retiring completely, but my personal interactions with him suggested that retirement was understandable.

[Anonymous User]

Have now heard of two clerks in the last year resigning before the end of their term with Aileen Cannon. Has to be one of the worst clerkships out there given what the environment of chambers sounds like combined with her widely panned rulings.

[Anonymous User]

What is a "judges to watch out for" list and how do I get my schools' or find out if we even have one??

[Anonymous User]

What is a "judges to watch out for" list and how do I get my schools' or find out if we even have one??

Schools will sometimes get feedback from their grads who clerk on their experience with particular judges, and keep track, so they can warn students if a particular judge is known to treat clerks badly. If your school has a clerkship advisor or clerkship committee, ask them if they have any records of past students' experiences. Whether there is one or how useful it is probably depends on how many grads go on to clerk. More common is a list of alumni who clerked and for whom, the idea being that you can contact them about their experiences. That kind of reaching out is probably most useful after you get an interview - reaching out to a former clerk to find out about their experience isn't usually the kind of thing that will get you pulled from the pile of applicants, and if you don't get any interest, whether they're a bad boss is moot.

Also, there's this: https://www.legalaccountabilityproject.org/ but I have no idea how useful it is as a resource yet.

[Anonymous User]

Have now heard of two clerks in the last year resigning before the end of their term with Aileen Cannon. Has to be one of the worst clerkships out there given what the environment of chambers sounds like combined with her widely panned rulings.

Related to the Trump case, perhaps?

[Anonymous User]

Have now heard of two clerks in the last year resigning before the end of their term with Aileen Cannon. Has to be one of the worst clerkships out there given what the environment of chambers sounds like combined with her widely panned rulings.

For what it is worth, one of these instances involved relocation/family responsibilities and was a mutual decision. The other was not political. The consensus is that it is a busy clerkship made even more stressful by the Trump matters (with the need to get security clearance, constant death threats to chambers, security details, fire drills that arise in the case, etc.) but otherwise perspectives vary.

[Anonymous User]

I have heard very, very bad things about the Cannon clerkship that have nothing to do with Trump

[Anonymous User]

I was told to avoid Nicholas Garaufis in EDNY and Richard Berman in SDNY.

[Anonymous User]

I have heard very, very bad things about the Cannon clerkship that have nothing to do with Trump

Care to elaborate?

[Anonymous User]

.

[Anonymous User]

I have heard very, very bad things about the Cannon clerkship that have nothing to do with Trump

Care to elaborate?

Not the poster you are responding to. But generally, she treats clerks (and the entire chambers staff) very poorly and tends to get angry to the point of screaming at them and talking to them in condescending ways. I know her courtroom deputy quit less than two years into the job. Expectation is basically that you don't have a personal life during the clerkship and that work takes priority over anything else to the point that she controls what you do 24/7. This results in her micromanaging everything, and setting rules regarding when clerks are allowed to work on certain assignments, including an arbitrary rule that clerks can't work on the daily filing for their cases (like drafting scheduling orders, orders granting motions for extension of times, etc.) until outside of in-office hours. She frequently requires that clerks come into the office on weekends and federal holidays (including some major ones) even though she herself is there less than 1/4 of those days. And when she does require weekend or holiday work, she won't let you know until last minute so if you bought a plane ticket, you're out of luck. Even if she doesn't mandate weekend work in the office, the deadlines she sets are so unrealistic that 9 times out of 10 you're going to be working on a weekend just to turn in a not-great draft by the deadline (which only contributes to more yelling and screaming for it not being polished enough). Average hours worked in a week are between 80-100, with 100+ hours a week not being uncommon. It's definitely not a clerkship to take if you have a family.

I would love to give more specific examples that I've heard, but doing so would out the clerk I heard it from or at least the class year.

Truly abysmal. Does anyone wonder how these judges end up like this? Who taught them that treating people like this is ok or that, at a minimum, it was an effective strategy to manage a docket?

[Anonymous User]

I have heard very, very bad things about the Cannon clerkship that have nothing to do with Trump

Care to elaborate?

Not the poster you are responding to. But generally, she treats clerks (and the entire chambers staff) very poorly and tends to get angry to the point of screaming at them and talking to them in condescending ways. I know her courtroom deputy quit less than two years into the job. Expectation is basically that you don't have a personal life during the clerkship and that work takes priority over anything else to the point that she controls what you do 24/7. This results in her micromanaging everything, and setting rules regarding when clerks are allowed to work on certain assignments, including an arbitrary rule that clerks can't work on the daily filing for their cases (like drafting scheduling orders, orders granting motions for extension of times, etc.) until outside of in-office hours. She frequently requires that clerks come into the office on weekends and federal holidays (including some major ones) even though she herself is there less than 1/4 of those days. And when she does require weekend or holiday work, she won't let you know until last minute so if you bought a plane ticket, you're out of luck. Even if she doesn't mandate weekend work in the office, the deadlines she sets are so unrealistic that 9 times out of 10 you're going to be working on a weekend just to turn in a not-great draft by the deadline (which only contributes to more yelling and screaming for it not being polished enough). Average hours worked in a week are between 80-100, with 100+ hours a week not being uncommon. It's definitely not a clerkship to take if you have a family.

I would love to give more specific examples that I've heard, but doing so would out the clerk I heard it from or at least the class year.

Truly abysmal. Does anyone wonder how these judges end up like this? Who taught them that treating people like this is ok or that, at a minimum, it was an effective strategy to manage a docket?

Part of the problem is that Cannon herself is woefully unqualified for the job she has. I don't mean that in general sense that Trump (or Biden) nominees are younger and more political than their predecessors. I mean that she never tried cases or really engaged in the process of district court litigation--she was an appellate AUSA after clerking and a (very) brief stint in private practice. So she has no clue what district court judges are supposed to be doing because the only way she's ever interacted with them is the hyper-technical world of appeals. After some actual district court practice, you realize often the most important thing about a district court judge is that they rule consistently, clearly, and quickly. Leave perfection for appeals.

[Anonymous User]

I have heard very, very bad things about the Cannon clerkship that have nothing to do with Trump

Care to elaborate?

Not the poster you are responding to. But generally, she treats clerks (and the entire chambers staff) very poorly and tends to get angry to the point of screaming at them and talking to them in condescending ways. I know her courtroom deputy quit less than two years into the job. Expectation is basically that you don't have a personal life during the clerkship and that work takes priority over anything else to the point that she controls what you do 24/7. This results in her micromanaging everything, and setting rules regarding when clerks are allowed to work on certain assignments, including an arbitrary rule that clerks can't work on the daily filing for their cases (like drafting scheduling orders, orders granting motions for extension of times, etc.) until outside of in-office hours. She frequently requires that clerks come into the office on weekends and federal holidays (including some major ones) even though she herself is there less than 1/4 of those days. And when she does require weekend or holiday work, she won't let you know until last minute so if you bought a plane ticket, you're out of luck. Even if she doesn't mandate weekend work in the office, the deadlines she sets are so unrealistic that 9 times out of 10 you're going to be working on a weekend just to turn in a not-great draft by the deadline (which only contributes to more yelling and screaming for it not being polished enough). Average hours worked in a week are between 80-100, with 100+ hours a week not being uncommon. It's definitely not a clerkship to take if you have a family.

I would love to give more specific examples that I've heard, but doing so would out the clerk I heard it from or at least the class year.

Truly abysmal. Does anyone wonder how these judges end up like this? Who taught them that treating people like this is ok or that, at a minimum, it was an effective strategy to manage a docket?

Part of the problem is that Cannon herself is woefully unqualified for the job she has. I don't mean that in general sense that Trump (or Biden) nominees are younger and more political than their predecessors. I mean that she never tried cases or really engaged in the process of district court litigation--she was an appellate AUSA after clerking and a (very) brief stint in private practice. So she has no clue what district court judges are supposed to be doing because the only way she's ever interacted with them is the hyper-technical world of appeals. After some actual district court practice, you realize often the most important thing about a district court judge is that they rule consistently, clearly, and quickly. Leave perfection for appeals.

And she probably blew whatever shot she had to be elevated to CA11 after the Trump debacle.

[Anonymous User]

I have heard very, very bad things about the Cannon clerkship that have nothing to do with Trump

Care to elaborate?

Not the poster you are responding to. But generally, she treats clerks (and the entire chambers staff) very poorly and tends to get angry to the point of screaming at them and talking to them in condescending ways. I know her courtroom deputy quit less than two years into the job. Expectation is basically that you don't have a personal life during the clerkship and that work takes priority over anything else to the point that she controls what you do 24/7. This results in her micromanaging everything, and setting rules regarding when clerks are allowed to work on certain assignments, including an arbitrary rule that clerks can't work on the daily filing for their cases (like drafting scheduling orders, orders granting motions for extension of times, etc.) until outside of in-office hours. She frequently requires that clerks come into the office on weekends and federal holidays (including some major ones) even though she herself is there less than 1/4 of those days. And when she does require weekend or holiday work, she won't let you know until last minute so if you bought a plane ticket, you're out of luck. Even if she doesn't mandate weekend work in the office, the deadlines she sets are so unrealistic that 9 times out of 10 you're going to be working on a weekend just to turn in a not-great draft by the deadline (which only contributes to more yelling and screaming for it not being polished enough). Average hours worked in a week are between 80-100, with 100+ hours a week not being uncommon. It's definitely not a clerkship to take if you have a family.

I would love to give more specific examples that I've heard, but doing so would out the clerk I heard it from or at least the class year.

Truly abysmal. Does anyone wonder how these judges end up like this? Who taught them that treating people like this is ok or that, at a minimum, it was an effective strategy to manage a docket?

Part of the problem is that Cannon herself is woefully unqualified for the job she has. I don't mean that in general sense that Trump (or Biden) nominees are younger and more political than their predecessors. I mean that she never tried cases or really engaged in the process of district court litigation--she was an appellate AUSA after clerking and a (very) brief stint in private practice. So she has no clue what district court judges are supposed to be doing because the only way she's ever interacted with them is the hyper-technical world of appeals. After some actual district court practice, you realize often the most important thing about a district court judge is that they rule consistently, clearly, and quickly. Leave perfection for appeals.

This is an under-appreciated insight. None of it excuses the management style the above commenter described from Cannon, but I don't think clerks and applicants appreciate how freaking hard it is to be a new district judge. There is no prior job that prepares you for it: AUSAs are dealing with a civil docket for the first time in their careers, civil litigators are learning criminal procedure and sentencing, state judges are adapting to an entirely new set of formal and informal procedures while un-learning years of habits, and everyone has to adapt to the heavy caseload, high visibility, non-judicial duties, and general politics of working with other judges, the clerk's office, etc. It's a lot, and you're thrown into it immediately without much formal guidance and, of course, no superior you're reporting up to.

I clerked for a new Biden appointee who had been a state trial judge for a decade and had a long career as a trial lawyer before that. It was a positive experience, but it was a lot. Procedures had to be written from scratch, chambers policies changed often as the judge figured out what worked and what didn't, and the judge (although always humane and caring) didn't really know how to manage clerks and seemed understandably anxious for the first several months about screwing up or looking unqualified. I had pretty stable 9 to 6 hours but the judge was often in early and late figuring out the job.

My point isn't to dissuade someone from clerking for a new judge (it was very rewarding) but just to flag that it brings challenges for judges even far better suited for the role than Cannon.

[Anonymous User]

I have heard very, very bad things about the Cannon clerkship that have nothing to do with Trump

Care to elaborate?

Not the poster you are responding to. But generally, she treats clerks (and the entire chambers staff) very poorly and tends to get angry to the point of screaming at them and talking to them in condescending ways. I know her courtroom deputy quit less than two years into the job. Expectation is basically that you don't have a personal life during the clerkship and that work takes priority over anything else to the point that she controls what you do 24/7. This results in her micromanaging everything, and setting rules regarding when clerks are allowed to work on certain assignments, including an arbitrary rule that clerks can't work on the daily filing for their cases (like drafting scheduling orders, orders granting motions for extension of times, etc.) until outside of in-office hours. She frequently requires that clerks come into the office on weekends and federal holidays (including some major ones) even though she herself is there less than 1/4 of those days. And when she does require weekend or holiday work, she won't let you know until last minute so if you bought a plane ticket, you're out of luck. Even if she doesn't mandate weekend work in the office, the deadlines she sets are so unrealistic that 9 times out of 10 you're going to be working on a weekend just to turn in a not-great draft by the deadline (which only contributes to more yelling and screaming for it not being polished enough). Average hours worked in a week are between 80-100, with 100+ hours a week not being uncommon. It's definitely not a clerkship to take if you have a family.

I would love to give more specific examples that I've heard, but doing so would out the clerk I heard it from or at least the class year.

Truly abysmal. Does anyone wonder how these judges end up like this? Who taught them that treating people like this is ok or that, at a minimum, it was an effective strategy to manage a docket?

Part of the problem is that Cannon herself is woefully unqualified for the job she has. I don't mean that in general sense that Trump (or Biden) nominees are younger and more political than their predecessors. I mean that she never tried cases or really engaged in the process of district court litigation--she was an appellate AUSA after clerking and a (very) brief stint in private practice. So she has no clue what district court judges are supposed to be doing because the only way she's ever interacted with them is the hyper-technical world of appeals. After some actual district court practice, you realize often the most important thing about a district court judge is that they rule consistently, clearly, and quickly. Leave perfection for appeals.

This is an under-appreciated insight. None of it excuses the management style the above commenter described from Cannon, but I don't think clerks and applicants appreciate how freaking hard it is to be a new district judge. There is no prior job that prepares you for it: AUSAs are dealing with a civil docket for the first time in their careers, civil litigators are learning criminal procedure and sentencing, state judges are adapting to an entirely new set of formal and informal procedures while un-learning years of habits, and everyone has to adapt to the heavy caseload, high visibility, non-judicial duties, and general politics of working with other judges, the clerk's office, etc. It's a lot, and you're thrown into it immediately without much formal guidance and, of course, no superior you're reporting up to.

I clerked for a new Biden appointee who had been a state trial judge for a decade and had a long career as a trial lawyer before that. It was a positive experience, but it was a lot. Procedures had to be written from scratch, chambers policies changed often as the judge figured out what worked and what didn't, and the judge (although always humane and caring) didn't really know how to manage clerks and seemed understandably anxious for the first several months about screwing up or looking unqualified. I had pretty stable 9 to 6 hours but the judge was often in early and late figuring out the job.

My point isn't to dissuade someone from clerking for a new judge (it was very rewarding) but just to flag that it brings challenges for judges even far better suited for the role than Cannon.

Such a thoughtful insight. As a clerk, I 100% concur with this.

[johnman]

I have heard very, very bad things about the Cannon clerkship that have nothing to do with Trump

Care to elaborate?

Not the poster you are responding to. But generally, she treats clerks (and the entire chambers staff) very poorly and tends to get angry to the point of screaming at them and talking to them in condescending ways. I know her courtroom deputy quit less than two years into the job. Expectation is basically that you don't have a personal life during the clerkship and that work takes priority over anything else to the point that she controls what you do 24/7. This results in her micromanaging everything, and setting rules regarding when clerks are allowed to work on certain assignments, including an arbitrary rule that clerks can't work on the daily filing for their cases (like drafting scheduling orders, orders granting motions for extension of times, etc.) until outside of in-office hours. She frequently requires that clerks come into the office on weekends and federal holidays (including some major ones) even though she herself is there less than 1/4 of those days. And when she does require weekend or holiday work, she won't let you know until last minute so if you bought a plane ticket, you're out of luck. Even if she doesn't mandate weekend work in the office, the deadlines she sets are so unrealistic that 9 times out of 10 you're going to be working on a weekend just to turn in a not-great draft by the deadline (which only contributes to more yelling and screaming for it not being polished enough). Average hours worked in a week are between 80-100, with 100+ hours a week not being uncommon. It's definitely not a clerkship to take if you have a family.

I would love to give more specific examples that I've heard, but doing so would out the clerk I heard it from or at least the class year.

Truly abysmal. Does anyone wonder how these judges end up like this? Who taught them that treating people like this is ok or that, at a minimum, it was an effective strategy to manage a docket?

Part of the problem is that Cannon herself is woefully unqualified for the job she has. I don't mean that in general sense that Trump (or Biden) nominees are younger and more political than their predecessors. I mean that she never tried cases or really engaged in the process of district court litigation--she was an appellate AUSA after clerking and a (very) brief stint in private practice. So she has no clue what district court judges are supposed to be doing because the only way she's ever interacted with them is the hyper-technical world of appeals. After some actual district court practice, you realize often the most important thing about a district court judge is that they rule consistently, clearly, and quickly. Leave perfection for appeals.

This is an under-appreciated insight. None of it excuses the management style the above commenter described from Cannon, but I don't think clerks and applicants appreciate how freaking hard it is to be a new district judge. There is no prior job that prepares you for it: AUSAs are dealing with a civil docket for the first time in their careers, civil litigators are learning criminal procedure and sentencing, state judges are adapting to an entirely new set of formal and informal procedures while un-learning years of habits, and everyone has to adapt to the heavy caseload, high visibility, non-judicial duties, and general politics of working with other judges, the clerk's office, etc. It's a lot, and you're thrown into it immediately without much formal guidance and, of course, no superior you're reporting up to.

I clerked for a new Biden appointee who had been a state trial judge for a decade and had a long career as a trial lawyer before that. It was a positive experience, but it was a lot. Procedures had to be written from scratch, chambers policies changed often as the judge figured out what worked and what didn't, and the judge (although always humane and caring) didn't really know how to manage clerks and seemed understandably anxious for the first several months about screwing up or looking unqualified. I had pretty stable 9 to 6 hours but the judge was often in early and late figuring out the job.

My point isn't to dissuade someone from clerking for a new judge (it was very rewarding) but just to flag that it brings challenges for judges even far better suited for the role than Cannon.

I’ll second that this is a great insight. I’d add, however, that oftentimes federal magistrate judges are quite prepared for the job due to the nature of being an MJ. (Former AUSA Magistrates are some of the most prepared that I’ve encountered in my experience clerking and in practice). This is particularly true in some districts where the Magistrates are relied on heavily.

Not to say they don’t have challenges too, but they can be a safer bet in terms of management than a brand new DJ.

[Anonymous User]

Avoid Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo at all costs. I know some of her former clerks. She is verbally and emotionally abusive.

I would second this.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know anything about Judge Axon on ND Alabama?

Edit: also, for someone interested in litigating in the South long term (though in a different state), how does an ND Ala. clerkship pencil?

[Anonymous User]

I have heard very, very bad things about the Cannon clerkship that have nothing to do with Trump

Care to elaborate?

Not the poster you are responding to. But generally, she treats clerks (and the entire chambers staff) very poorly and tends to get angry to the point of screaming at them and talking to them in condescending ways. I know her courtroom deputy quit less than two years into the job. Expectation is basically that you don't have a personal life during the clerkship and that work takes priority over anything else to the point that she controls what you do 24/7. This results in her micromanaging everything, and setting rules regarding when clerks are allowed to work on certain assignments, including an arbitrary rule that clerks can't work on the daily filing for their cases (like drafting scheduling orders, orders granting motions for extension of times, etc.) until outside of in-office hours. She frequently requires that clerks come into the office on weekends and federal holidays (including some major ones) even though she herself is there less than 1/4 of those days. And when she does require weekend or holiday work, she won't let you know until last minute so if you bought a plane ticket, you're out of luck. Even if she doesn't mandate weekend work in the office, the deadlines she sets are so unrealistic that 9 times out of 10 you're going to be working on a weekend just to turn in a not-great draft by the deadline (which only contributes to more yelling and screaming for it not being polished enough). Average hours worked in a week are between 80-100, with 100+ hours a week not being uncommon. It's definitely not a clerkship to take if you have a family.

I would love to give more specific examples that I've heard, but doing so would out the clerk I heard it from or at least the class year.

Truly abysmal. Does anyone wonder how these judges end up like this? Who taught them that treating people like this is ok or that, at a minimum, it was an effective strategy to manage a docket?

Part of the problem is that Cannon herself is woefully unqualified for the job she has. I don't mean that in general sense that Trump (or Biden) nominees are younger and more political than their predecessors. I mean that she never tried cases or really engaged in the process of district court litigation--she was an appellate AUSA after clerking and a (very) brief stint in private practice. So she has no clue what district court judges are supposed to be doing because the only way she's ever interacted with them is the hyper-technical world of appeals. After some actual district court practice, you realize often the most important thing about a district court judge is that they rule consistently, clearly, and quickly. Leave perfection for appeals.

This is an under-appreciated insight. None of it excuses the management style the above commenter described from Cannon, but I don't think clerks and applicants appreciate how freaking hard it is to be a new district judge. There is no prior job that prepares you for it: AUSAs are dealing with a civil docket for the first time in their careers, civil litigators are learning criminal procedure and sentencing, state judges are adapting to an entirely new set of formal and informal procedures while un-learning years of habits, and everyone has to adapt to the heavy caseload, high visibility, non-judicial duties, and general politics of working with other judges, the clerk's office, etc. It's a lot, and you're thrown into it immediately without much formal guidance and, of course, no superior you're reporting up to.

I clerked for a new Biden appointee who had been a state trial judge for a decade and had a long career as a trial lawyer before that. It was a positive experience, but it was a lot. Procedures had to be written from scratch, chambers policies changed often as the judge figured out what worked and what didn't, and the judge (although always humane and caring) didn't really know how to manage clerks and seemed understandably anxious for the first several months about screwing up or looking unqualified. I had pretty stable 9 to 6 hours but the judge was often in early and late figuring out the job.

My point isn't to dissuade someone from clerking for a new judge (it was very rewarding) but just to flag that it brings challenges for judges even far better suited for the role than Cannon.

I’ll second that this is a great insight. I’d add, however, that oftentimes federal magistrate judges are quite prepared for the job due to the nature of being an MJ. (Former AUSA Magistrates are some of the most prepared that I’ve encountered in my experience clerking and in practice). This is particularly true in some districts where the Magistrates are relied on heavily.

Not to say they don’t have challenges too, but they can be a safer bet in terms of management than a brand new DJ.

I think clerk selection also plays a role here too. I clerked on a court that had several new judges at once. Some newer judges (like mine) conducted an expedited version of the normal fresh-from-law-school hiring process. Others reached out to junior but experienced and trusted lawyers and to recent clerks from the same court to fill out their first few years. Clerking for a new judge is interesting, and challenging, and a good opportunity for those like me who were reaching a bit higher than pure credentials would allow. But our wholly inexperienced chambers had a much tougher time getting in the swing of things than the chambers that prioritized easing the transition in hiring. A few years out, I know that the current clerks have better hours and way less stress than anyone who clerked in the first few years.

I see a lot of judges mentioned here in the "worst" category who could simply be new rather than generally unpleasant. Personally, I had a rough enough time that I would never recommend clerking for my judge and have actively discouraged people I know from applying. But I wouldn't name my judge here because I recognize intellectually that growing pains from the new position played a huge roll in my experience.

On the flip side, if you hear that a newer judge is good to work for, that is probably a really good sign because their positive qualities have overcome a lot of the struggle from the new job.

[Anonymous User]

Being a new district judge on a busy court is really, really hard. I agree that the best prep is probably being a state court trial judge in a major jurisdiction or being a federal magistrate. Hours will be especially long for judges with perfectionist personalities; judges who basically rubber-stamp clerk work product generally have better hours than ones who are deep on every case.

[Anonymous User]

Being a new district judge on a busy court is really, really hard. I agree that the best prep is probably being a state court trial judge in a major jurisdiction or being a federal magistrate. Hours will be especially long for judges with perfectionist personalities; judges who basically rubber-stamp clerk work product generally have better hours than ones who are deep on every case.

How many years does it usually take for a new judge to really learn the ropes? Interviewing with a 2018 appointee this week, so I imagine she's figured it out, but what's a good rule of thumb.

[Anonymous User]

Being a new district judge on a busy court is really, really hard. I agree that the best prep is probably being a state court trial judge in a major jurisdiction or being a federal magistrate. Hours will be especially long for judges with perfectionist personalities; judges who basically rubber-stamp clerk work product generally have better hours than ones who are deep on every case.

How many years does it usually take for a new judge to really learn the ropes? Interviewing with a 2018 appointee this week, so I imagine she's figured it out, but what's a good rule of thumb.

I think that's plenty of time. How long it takes will depend in part on how much experience they already had and what kind, and the jurisdiction as well - like the post you quote (not mine) suggests, a state court judge or magistrate will transition pretty quickly, and if the jurisdiction is swamped with cases getting up to speed will be tougher than if it's a little more laid back. I've seen a former private practioner struggle to adjust in a really busy district, and a different former private practitioner seem to adjust more smoothly, in a less busy district where they had a little more breathing room. (Admittedly this is based on appearing before them rather than clerking for them, but if a judge is struggling in court that's probably some evidence of what's going on in chambers.)

[Anonymous User]

Judge Merriam in the 2nd circuit screams loudly and frequently at clerks.

This does not surprise me one bit.

Why is that? She's been on the court ...three months? small amount of time to be down to a short fuse.

She was a magistrate and a district court judge. She might have even gotten that reputation at the FPD.

In response to the next comment, no one vetting particularly cares if a judge is mean to their clerks. People still vouch for Senator Klobuchar for all sorts of positions, and she is absolutely sadistic to all of her staffers (not a surprise - she was a BigLaw partner!).

Seriously, other than this single thread in this single forum, where else is a law clerk ever going to feel comfortable telling strangers that a judge is verbally abusive to law clerks?

This thread needs to be bumped once a month for eternity. May it never die.

Nah a better use for this thread is for random partisans to relitigate which FedSoc judges are the worst lol.

Is this still true for Merriam? Any other info about this?

[Anonymous User]

Judge Merriam in the 2nd circuit screams loudly and frequently at clerks.

This does not surprise me one bit.

Why is that? She's been on the court ...three months? small amount of time to be down to a short fuse.

She was a magistrate and a district court judge. She might have even gotten that reputation at the FPD.

In response to the next comment, no one vetting particularly cares if a judge is mean to their clerks. People still vouch for Senator Klobuchar for all sorts of positions, and she is absolutely sadistic to all of her staffers (not a surprise - she was a BigLaw partner!).

Seriously, other than this single thread in this single forum, where else is a law clerk ever going to feel comfortable telling strangers that a judge is verbally abusive to law clerks?

This thread needs to be bumped once a month for eternity. May it never die.

Nah a better use for this thread is for random partisans to relitigate which FedSoc judges are the worst lol.

Is this still true for Merriam? Any other info about this?

Or for Pan?