What happens if your judge passes away before/during clerkship? Forum
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about clerkship applications and clerkship hiring. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned."
Anonymous Posting
Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about clerkship applications and clerkship hiring. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned."
-
- Posts: 428479
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
What happens if your judge passes away before/during clerkship?
I don't mean to bring up a morbid topic, but I am legitimately curious as to what happens on the lower courts if a judge unexpectedly passes. I know that even many senior judges hire several years ahead. Anybody know anything on this topic or worked with clerks who have been in this situation?
-
- Posts: 100
- Joined: Fri Dec 13, 2019 9:01 pm
Re: What happens if your judge passes away before/during clerkship?
From what I understand, other judges on the court sometimes hire the clerks for future terms; worst case you have to find another clerkship but you have the talking point that a judge thought you were good enough to hire. I would imagine the better the judge that passed away, the more likely you are to find something worthwhile (e.g. I think when Judge Reinhardt passed away his clerks all ended up on their feet; though they also had excellent credentials, of course).
-
- Posts: 428479
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: What happens if your judge passes away before/during clerkship?
This happened in my circuit when clerks had ~3 months left in their clerkship term. Other judges in the circuit "adopted" those clerks and helped them finish out their term.
-
- Posts: 428479
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: What happens if your judge passes away before/during clerkship?
That happened in my district. The district's chief judge got permission from the circuit for the late judge's clerks to stay for up to 6 months and do work for other judges.
- HenryHankPalmer
- Posts: 325
- Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 6:39 pm
Re: What happens if your judge passes away before/during clerkship?
I know one person whose judged passed away six months into her clerkship with a federal district court. She was "adopted" by a COA judge who sat in the same city for the remainder of her term and ended up staying on with the same COA judge for the following term. Granted this was a decade ago, but, when it happens, the clerks seem to land on their feet.
Want to continue reading?
Register now to search topics and post comments!
Absolutely FREE!
Already a member? Login