SDNY Clerkship Hours Forum

[Anonymous User]

I understand that this question is entirely incumbent on the particular judge, but I was wondering what the general hours were of an SDNY clerk. Is weekend work expected or the exception? Is it, all things considered, a 9-6 M-F job, with the exception being individual judge preferences and particular dockets?

Are there any current active judges known for particularly long hours?

[Anonymous User]

Across SDNY and EDNY it really depends on the judge, ranging from 9-5 to 80 hour weeks. Generally, the newer and younger a judge is the worse your hours will be.

[Anonymous User]

Failla is known for very long hours and her clerks often stay past midnight. Koeltl usually requires one day of weekend work. But he's there grinding with them, is a very good judge, and clerks seem to like him a lot. Berman fires clerks, so I'd avoid him. Gregory Woods is apparently similarly difficult, maybe fires clerks.

[Anonymous User]

Across SDNY and EDNY it really depends on the judge, ranging from 9-5 to 80 hour weeks. Generally, the newer and younger a judge is the worse your hours will be.

By newer judge do you just mean the Trump-appointed judges? Do they all have a reputation for long hours? There's only four of them.

[Anonymous User]

Across SDNY and EDNY it really depends on the judge, ranging from 9-5 to 80 hour weeks. Generally, the newer and younger a judge is the worse your hours will be.

By newer judge do you just mean the Trump-appointed judges? Do they all have a reputation for long hours? There's only four of them.

I've heard great things about Liman. He's very nice and his clerks like him, and don't believe his Chambers keeps unusual hours.

[Iowahawk]

EDNY but Kovner probably works her clerks very hard based on what her clerk on another thread said about the experience.

[Quichelorraine]

By newer judge do you just mean the Trump-appointed judges? Do they all have a reputation for long hours? There's only four of them.

I'm not the poster you were responding to, but it's more that newer judges are still finding their sea legs, and tend to have to work harder just to keep up, not to mention being at the bottom of the seniority pool re. undesirable assignments. I clerked for an unbelievably chill active DJ in flyover country, but talking to his first few clerk classes, you'd think they were describing a different judge entirely ("intense!" "long hours!" "endless revisions!" "trial prep would take forever!"). Take that truism and place it in the context of SDNY/EDNY, which are particularly competitive, type-A places with busy dockets and lots of complex civil litigation, and I imagine the tendency is particularly pronounced.

[Anonymous User]

Across SDNY and EDNY it really depends on the judge, ranging from 9-5 to 80 hour weeks. Generally, the newer and younger a judge is the worse your hours will be.

By newer judge do you just mean the Trump-appointed judges? Do they all have a reputation for long hours? There's only four of them.

I've heard great things about Liman. He's very nice and his clerks like him, and don't believe his Chambers keeps unusual hours.

What about Vyskocil and Cronan. They've been discussed briefly but I don't think anyone has commented directly on their chambers or work style, if known.

[Anonymous User]

Across SDNY and EDNY it really depends on the judge, ranging from 9-5 to 80 hour weeks. Generally, the newer and younger a judge is the worse your hours will be.

By newer judge do you just mean the Trump-appointed judges? Do they all have a reputation for long hours? There's only four of them.

I've heard great things about Liman. He's very nice and his clerks like him, and don't believe his Chambers keeps unusual hours.

What about Vyskocil and Cronan. They've been discussed briefly but I don't think anyone has commented directly on their chambers or work style, if known.

I have heard good things about Cronan, but they certainly work hard.

[Anonymous User]

Across SDNY and EDNY it really depends on the judge, ranging from 9-5 to 80 hour weeks. Generally, the newer and younger a judge is the worse your hours will be.

By newer judge do you just mean the Trump-appointed judges? Do they all have a reputation for long hours? There's only four of them.

I've heard great things about Liman. He's very nice and his clerks like him, and don't believe his Chambers keeps unusual hours.

What about Vyskocil and Cronan. They've been discussed briefly but I don't think anyone has commented directly on their chambers or work style, if known.

I have heard good things about Cronan, but they certainly work hard.

I’ve heard glowing personal references on Cronan but haven’t talked to anyone that’s worked for/with him since he got on the bench re: hours.

[Anonymous User]

What about Vyskocil and Cronan. They've been discussed briefly but I don't think anyone has commented directly on their chambers or work style, if known.

I've heard great things about Vyskocil, who was a bankruptcy judge and biglaw partner before being elevated. She seems to prefer clerks with work experience.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have an idea what Cote's case load is like?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have an idea what Cote's case load is like?

She remains fairly active. As a senior judge, she has the benefit of getting out of the "wheels" (the case assignment system) for types of cases she doesn't want. Don't know what she's elected, but senior judges often choose not to do pro se and habeas.

[Anonymous User]

I understand that this question is entirely incumbent on the particular judge, but I was wondering what the general hours were of an SDNY clerk. Is weekend work expected or the exception? Is it, all things considered, a 9-6 M-F job, with the exception being individual judge preferences and particular dockets?

Are there any current active judges known for particularly long hours?

EDNY clerk who is dating a former CD Cal clerk and who has many clerk friends on both SDNY and other courts.

It's judge dependent, to an extent. But there are other factors at work too. For the last year, there was a district judge shortage due to politics leaving a lot of vacancies open. So I know several friends who had 10 hour days/ 7 days a week for the majority of the year. Also, SDNY manages its own discovery, which translates to a great deal of extra work for the clerks. There *may* be 9-5ers on SDNY, but I've never met one. (Although, to be sure, I don't know people who have clerked for all the judges. So I could be just ignorant.)

[Anonymous User]

I understand that this question is entirely incumbent on the particular judge, but I was wondering what the general hours were of an SDNY clerk. Is weekend work expected or the exception? Is it, all things considered, a 9-6 M-F job, with the exception being individual judge preferences and particular dockets?

Are there any current active judges known for particularly long hours?

EDNY clerk who is dating a former CD Cal clerk and who has many clerk friends on both SDNY and other courts.

It's judge dependent, to an extent. But there are other factors at work too. For the last year, there was a district judge shortage due to politics leaving a lot of vacancies open. So I know several friends who had 10 hour days/ 7 days a week for the majority of the year. Also, SDNY manages its own discovery, which translates to a great deal of extra work for the clerks. There *may* be 9-5ers on SDNY, but I've never met one. (Although, to be sure, I don't know people who have clerked for all the judges. So I could be just ignorant.)

[Anonymous User]

I understand that this question is entirely incumbent on the particular judge, but I was wondering what the general hours were of an SDNY clerk. Is weekend work expected or the exception? Is it, all things considered, a 9-6 M-F job, with the exception being individual judge preferences and particular dockets?

Are there any current active judges known for particularly long hours?

EDNY clerk who is dating a former CD Cal clerk and who has many clerk friends on both SDNY and other courts.

It's judge dependent, to an extent. But there are other factors at work too. For the last year, there was a district judge shortage due to politics leaving a lot of vacancies open. So I know several friends who had 10 hour days/ 7 days a week for the majority of the year. Also, SDNY manages its own discovery, which translates to a great deal of extra work for the clerks. There *may* be 9-5ers on SDNY, but I've never met one. (Although, to be sure, I don't know people who have clerked for all the judges. So I could be just ignorant.)

There absolutely are 9-5 clerks on SDNY, at least among senior judges. Probably somewhere between rare and non-existent among active judges.

[Anonymous User]

Any judges in their first couple of years on the bench will have particularly long hours because of the way SDNY reassigns cases to new judges. The other judges often give their worst cases to the new people.

[Anonymous User]

My experience as a current SDNY clerk with friends in other chambers (both Manhattan and White Plains) is that most clerks for active SDNY and EDNY district judges work very high hours. My experience has been fairly similar to big law hours--60-80 hours a week. It's more regular than big law, like no weekend surprises, but I routinely work 12-13 hour days and have to put in a few hours on the weekends too.

This is not a job you want if you're looking for a chill year.

[Anonymous User]

My experience as a current SDNY clerk with friends in other chambers (both Manhattan and White Plains) is that most clerks for active SDNY and EDNY district judges work very high hours. My experience has been fairly similar to big law hours--60-80 hours a week. It's more regular than big law, like no weekend surprises, but I routinely work 12-13 hour days and have to put in a few hours on the weekends too.

This is not a job you want if you're looking for a chill year.

Yeah as a current SDNY (Manhattan) clerk my “normal” day is 12 hours and my shortest days are 9-10 hours. Once a week or so I’ll end up working more like 15 hours. But I don’t work that much on weekends and my judge is very flexible if you need to WFH, hop out of the office for a couple of hours to do something, etc. Agreed that you won’t find a 9-5, or maybe even anything close to it, with an active SDNY judge.

[Anonymous User]

Across SDNY and EDNY it really depends on the judge, ranging from 9-5 to 80 hour weeks. Generally, the newer and younger a judge is the worse your hours will be.

By newer judge do you just mean the Trump-appointed judges? Do they all have a reputation for long hours? There's only four of them.

I've heard great things about Liman. He's very nice and his clerks like him, and don't believe his Chambers keeps unusual hours.

What about Vyskocil and Cronan. They've been discussed briefly but I don't think anyone has commented directly on their chambers or work style, if known.

I have heard good things about Cronan, but they certainly work hard.

Agreed, Cronan is seemingly very popular both with his clerks and around the building but works hard even by SDNY standards. I’ve heard a couple of concerning things on Vyskocil as a boss but not *that* bad, I have no firsthand info and she’s probably fine, no idea on hours.

[Anonymous User]

My experience as a current SDNY clerk with friends in other chambers (both Manhattan and White Plains) is that most clerks for active SDNY and EDNY district judges work very high hours. My experience has been fairly similar to big law hours--60-80 hours a week.

Can any White Plains clerks chime in on this? This is not really consistent with what I've heard for White Plains, which is that typically the hours are more 9-5 (with exceptions when things get busy).