Former Judge Janis Jack Clerks Forum

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone clerked for Judge Janis Jack of the Southern District of Texas? I've read about negative clerking experience, and I'm wondering if that was just a bad year or if it's the judge. I'd appreciate any candid insight!

[Anonymous User]

I clerked for her. Although I didn’t have big issues with her, I know for a fact that most of her clerks have and a lot have quit mid-way into the clerkship. It’s not just a bad year, as you say. It’s the judge. It’s also pretty systemic. This all goes back to the 2000s and even the 90s (rumor is she apparently fired a lot of clerks left and right when she first took the bench). Take a look at her Robing Room reviews. Before I started the clerkship I thought those reviews were just gripes from losing parties or clerks who had unique issues with her. They’re not. Even despite me having a fairly “meh” year with her, I can 100% say for a fact that all those gripes are for real.

My advice is to steer clear — this is an instance where no clerkship is better than one clerkship with Judge Jack.

[Anonymous User]

Run. Run away. This Judge is a tyrant. So my fun Jack story, I initially had about 14 interviews scheduled with fantastic judges in amazing locations; however, good ole Janis gave me a call and offered on the spot! I thought to myself, "Well, the rule is that you can't turn a federal judge down, and Corpus sounds alright... why not?" I accepted. Rookie move. I then saw the reviews that I'm sure are worrying you and began to worry myself. I told myself that it was probably just some sour apples or angry petitioners from the court posting. No one could be THAT bad, right? Besides, the current clerk was telling me about how much fun I would be having (a.k.a lying bastard (but he/she's a good guy/girl who was in a tough spot so I'm not judging him/her too harshly )). Anyway, I show up in Corpus ready for my first day. I'm bright eyed and bushy tailed. The court house is nice; it's on the bay; the city seems alright. What could go wrong? I walk in and introduce myself to the security guard as the new Jack clerk... This is where the red flags begin. The security guard looks at me, apologizes, then takes me to the side and tells me, "You're in for a rough year. I just want to tell you that we'll be praying for you down here. Trust in God, and you'll be fine. But before you go up there, would you mind if I just sit here and pray with you for a bit. Can I bless you?" .... Not a promising start... But hey, maybe he is just a nut? I proceed to find the lying bastard (LB) in the chambers. When I find LB he/she looks tired. Like he/she hasn't slept. He/she looks disheveled. Kind of like he/she just came off a bender. We talk for a bit; he/she's a nice guy/girl. We walk to the kitchen, and I say, "Look LB (real name subbed out), cut the crap. Is it as bad as people are saying?" .... He/she pauses.... He/she looks at me, and he/she bursts out laughing...., "Brother/sister, you have no idea... It's so so much worse." LB for reference was no dummy. He/she graduated from one of the top 3 law schools. He/she had his/her choice of employment. As I got to know LB over the next few weeks, I found out that the reason he/she look disheveled was because he/she was. He/she had developed a bit of a drinking problem under Jack. Most days were fine though, he/she never had to see the woman. Why? Because she lives in Maine!!!!! And when she isn't in Maine she's in Dallas!! The clerkship consisted for him/her of sitting around bored out of his/her gourd. Getting cursed at for being such an incompetent attorney by Janis over the phone, receiving emails threatening to fire him/her for being so incompetent regularly (maybe every two weeks (implicitly each day)), and firing him/her about three times. You will see Queen Jack about once every two months when she flies into town to ram through enough sentencing hearings to keep up her numbers for the court so she is allocated government funds to waste on clerks she can abuse. The poor souls before the court receive a few minutes of consideration before Queen Jack sends them to the abyss of whatever jail. Has she considered their cases? She hasn't looked at their cases! Queen Jack doesn't read cases. Queen Jack doesn't have a printer in Maine or in Dallas. I don't know that I ever saw her read a motion herself, let alone facts of a case. And God forbid your criminal case gets forgotten about in chambers. Criminal cases don't show up in the Southern District's judicial tracker, so the chief judge doesn't find out if a case has been sitting for two years with no action (I found many such cases).

Working for Judge Jack I saw fraud, waste, and abuse of government funds to a shocking degree. I saw constant abuse of clerks. I don't know that we ever had a discussion with her sending some insult my way... Well that's not true. She did say hi and swore me in over the phone when I arrived. That was nice.

Aside from the waste of printing off hundreds of pages of documents to Fedex overnight to Jack at the cost of hundreds of dollars a week to the federal government because she refuses to get a printer in Maine or Dallas. I saw egregiously biased decisions towards litigants. Queen Jack is decidedly partisan. Not just partisan in the key case before the court M.D. (the foster care case); Queen Jack decides which way she is going without regard to motions. I'll give you a hint, it's against the state of Texas, sorry Governor Abbott. Unfortunately, I can't post specifics of her corrupt decisions that I witnessed because they would instantly identify myself and my co-clerk who were present.

Rather than ranting on and on about this banshee, let's just say, brother turn down the offer. Go elsewhere. While it is fun to have the clerks for real judges in the court come over to do celebrities read mean tweets of Queen Jack's emails to you, it's not worth it. Go get a real judge, a mentor, someone worth your time. Judge Jack isn't that person. Or just go work at Starbucks, and learn how to make a cappuccino. It's a better use of your time.

[Imthenewguy]

OP, feel free to PM me. I'd like to be candid and start a discussion with you if you wish -- hence the non-anonymous post. I'm assuming you have applied and have had some sort of discussion with chambers or others about the posting. I think it's important for you to know what you're getting into so I'd like to start this convo through private messaging.

[Imthenewguy]

I attempted to post a non-anonymous post before this, but I think since my account is new, I don't have private messaging functions. I made this account to answer OP's post, so forgive me Mods if this violates any rule. I originally intended to do a non-anonymous post so OP could message me directly -- but since that function may not be working for me, I'll just do a public post here. Everything that the second poster indicated is true. I have direct contact with at least four of her clerks (I won't tell you when they clerked, I also won't tell you if I/I did not clerk for her -- that may out me) and everyone was miserable. No one has spoken fondly of Judge Jack. Even the courthouse staff, the Clerk's office and the IT people are afraid of her. You're not going to get mentorship, you won't get constructive feedback, and you won't enjoy your time working for her. Period.

[Anonymous User]

Run. Run away. This Judge is a tyrant. So my fun Jack story, I initially had about 14 interviews scheduled with fantastic judges in amazing locations; however, good ole Janis gave me a call and offered on the spot! I thought to myself, "Well, the rule is that you can't turn a federal judge down, and Corpus sounds alright... why not?" I accepted. Rookie move. I then saw the reviews that I'm sure are worrying you and began to worry myself. I told myself that it was probably just some sour apples or angry petitioners from the court posting. No one could be THAT bad, right? Besides, the current clerk was telling me about how much fun I would be having (a.k.a lying bastard (but he/she's a good guy/girl who was in a tough spot so I'm not judging him/her too harshly )). Anyway, I show up in Corpus ready for my first day. I'm bright eyed and bushy tailed. The court house is nice; it's on the bay; the city seems alright. What could go wrong? I walk in and introduce myself to the security guard as the new Jack clerk... This is where the red flags begin. The security guard looks at me, apologizes, then takes me to the side and tells me, "You're in for a rough year. I just want to tell you that we'll be praying for you down here. Trust in God, and you'll be fine. But before you go up there, would you mind if I just sit here and pray with you for a bit. Can I bless you?" .... Not a promising start... But hey, maybe he is just a nut? I proceed to find the lying bastard (LB) in the chambers. When I find LB he/she looks tired. Like he/she hasn't slept. He/she looks disheveled. Kind of like he/she just came off a bender. We talk for a bit; he/she's a nice guy/girl. We walk to the kitchen, and I say, "Look LB (real name subbed out), cut the crap. Is it as bad as people are saying?" .... He/she pauses.... He/she looks at me, and he/she bursts out laughing...., "Brother/sister, you have no idea... It's so so much worse." LB for reference was no dummy. He/she graduated from one of the top 3 law schools. He/she had his/her choice of employment. As I got to know LB over the next few weeks, I found out that the reason he/she look disheveled was because he/she was. He/she had developed a bit of a drinking problem under Jack. Most days were fine though, he/she never had to see the woman. Why? Because she lives in Maine!!!!! And when she isn't in Maine she's in Dallas!! The clerkship consisted for him/her of sitting around bored out of his/her gourd. Getting cursed at for being such an incompetent attorney by Janis over the phone, receiving emails threatening to fire him/her for being so incompetent regularly (maybe every two weeks (implicitly each day)), and firing him/her about three times. You will see Queen Jack about once every two months when she flies into town to ram through enough sentencing hearings to keep up her numbers for the court so she is allocated government funds to waste on clerks she can abuse. The poor souls before the court receive a few minutes of consideration before Queen Jack sends them to the abyss of whatever jail. Has she considered their cases? She hasn't looked at their cases! Queen Jack doesn't read cases. Queen Jack doesn't have a printer in Maine or in Dallas. I don't know that I ever saw her read a motion herself, let alone facts of a case. And God forbid your criminal case gets forgotten about in chambers. Criminal cases don't show up in the Southern District's judicial tracker, so the chief judge doesn't find out if a case has been sitting for two years with no action (I found many such cases).

Working for Judge Jack I saw fraud, waste, and abuse of government funds to a shocking degree. I saw constant abuse of clerks. I don't know that we ever had a discussion with her sending some insult my way... Well that's not true. She did say hi and swore me in over the phone when I arrived. That was nice.

Aside from the waste of printing off hundreds of pages of documents to Fedex overnight to Jack at the cost of hundreds of dollars a week to the federal government because she refuses to get a printer in Maine or Dallas. I saw egregiously biased decisions towards litigants. Queen Jack is decidedly partisan. Not just partisan in the key case before the court M.D. (the foster care case); Queen Jack decides which way she is going without regard to motions. I'll give you a hint, it's against the state of Texas, sorry Governor Abbott. Unfortunately, I can't post specifics of her corrupt decisions that I witnessed because they would instantly identify myself and my co-clerk who were present.

Rather than ranting on and on about this banshee, let's just say, brother turn down the offer. Go elsewhere. While it is fun to have the clerks for real judges in the court come over to do celebrities read mean tweets of Queen Jack's emails to you, it's not worth it. Go get a real judge, a mentor, someone worth your time. Judge Jack isn't that person. Or just go work at Starbucks, and learn how to make a cappuccino. It's a better use of your time.

Good info, but you could've made this infinitely easier to read by just using "they" instead of both gendered pronouns every time.

[Anonymous User]

I clerked for her. Although I didn’t have big issues with her, I know for a fact that most of her clerks have and a lot have quit mid-way into the clerkship. It’s not just a bad year, as you say. It’s the judge. It’s also pretty systemic. This all goes back to the 2000s and even the 90s (rumor is she apparently fired a lot of clerks left and right when she first took the bench). Take a look at her Robing Room reviews. Before I started the clerkship I thought those reviews were just gripes from losing parties or clerks who had unique issues with her. They’re not. Even despite me having a fairly “meh” year with her, I can 100% say for a fact that all those gripes are for real.

My advice is to steer clear — this is an instance where no clerkship is better than one clerkship with Judge Jack.

Are Robing Room reviews ever helpful for learning about how judges are to work for (with this one obviously excluded)? I get the feeling they’re mostly bitter litigants.

[Anonymous User]

I clerked for her. Although I didn’t have big issues with her, I know for a fact that most of her clerks have and a lot have quit mid-way into the clerkship. It’s not just a bad year, as you say. It’s the judge. It’s also pretty systemic. This all goes back to the 2000s and even the 90s (rumor is she apparently fired a lot of clerks left and right when she first took the bench). Take a look at her Robing Room reviews. Before I started the clerkship I thought those reviews were just gripes from losing parties or clerks who had unique issues with her. They’re not. Even despite me having a fairly “meh” year with her, I can 100% say for a fact that all those gripes are for real.

My advice is to steer clear — this is an instance where no clerkship is better than one clerkship with Judge Jack.

Are Robing Room reviews ever helpful for learning about how judges are to work for (with this one obviously excluded)? I get the feeling they’re mostly bitter litigants.

For your purposes with Judge Jack, they are.

[lavarman84]

I saw egregiously biased decisions towards litigants. Queen Jack is decidedly partisan. Not just partisan in the key case before the court M.D. (the foster care case); Queen Jack decides which way she is going without regard to motions. I'll give you a hint, it's against the state of Texas, sorry Governor Abbott. Unfortunately, I can't post specifics of her corrupt decisions that I witnessed because they would instantly identify myself and my co-clerk who were present.

So basically, Queen Jack is the Lynn Hughes of the other side of the ideological spectrum.

And yes, for those reading, in addition to being an absolutely horrible judge, Lynn Hughes is a terrible boss too. (I thankfully did not clerk for him.)

[nixy]

Good info, but you could've made this infinitely easier to read by just using "they" instead of both gendered pronouns every time.

1) you felt compelled to post this? And
2) you had to post it anon??

Ex-Jack clerk, bless you for surviving that and talking about it here.

[nixy]

Are Robing Room reviews ever helpful for learning about how judges are to work for (with this one obviously excluded)? I get the feeling they’re mostly bitter litigants.

I think generally you’re right - bitter litigants who don’t understand the law, or lawyers unhappy with rulings. I’d maybe pay more attention to anything talking specifically about how a judge treats staff - the litigants aren’t going to know anything about that really (and most won’t care). But the site suffers from the disadvantage of any review site, only people with really strong feelings (usually negative) will bother to post.

[Iowahawk]

Are Robing Room reviews ever helpful for learning about how judges are to work for (with this one obviously excluded)? I get the feeling they’re mostly bitter litigants.

I think generally you’re right - bitter litigants who don’t understand the law, or lawyers unhappy with rulings. I’d maybe pay more attention to anything talking specifically about how a judge treats staff - the litigants aren’t going to know anything about that really (and most won’t care). But the site suffers from the disadvantage of any review site, only people with really strong feelings (usually negative) will bother to post.

The Almanac of the Federal Judiciary can be useful for this sort of thing, if you read a number of them you can tell ones that are damning with faint praise

[Anonymous User]

Former clerk from Houston. I have heard nothing but bad things about Judge Jack. Its really weird that she spends half of her time in Maine.

[Chokenhauer]

Are Robing Room reviews ever helpful for learning about how judges are to work for (with this one obviously excluded)? I get the feeling they’re mostly bitter litigants.

I think generally you’re right - bitter litigants who don’t understand the law, or lawyers unhappy with rulings. I’d maybe pay more attention to anything talking specifically about how a judge treats staff - the litigants aren’t going to know anything about that really (and most won’t care). But the site suffers from the disadvantage of any review site, only people with really strong feelings (usually negative) will bother to post.

That makes sense. It’s still a waste of time when the majority of reviews just mention that judges are just “biased towards corporations and the Republican Party” in every other line. I haven’t found anything talking about how certain judges treat staff.

But this thread is a real gold mine. And I hope it’s helpful for anyone considering an offer with someone like this.

[Anonymous User]

Are Robing Room reviews ever helpful for learning about how judges are to work for (with this one obviously excluded)? I get the feeling they’re mostly bitter litigants.

I think generally you’re right - bitter litigants who don’t understand the law, or lawyers unhappy with rulings. I’d maybe pay more attention to anything talking specifically about how a judge treats staff - the litigants aren’t going to know anything about that really (and most won’t care). But the site suffers from the disadvantage of any review site, only people with really strong feelings (usually negative) will bother to post.

That makes sense. It’s still a waste of time when the majority of reviews just mention that judges are just “biased towards corporations and the Republican Party” in every other line. I haven’t found anything talking about how certain judges treat staff.

But this thread is a real gold mine. And I hope it’s helpful for anyone considering an offer with someone like this.

Janis Jack tidbits from Robing Room:
"This is the absolute worst judge I have ever been in front of. She is petty, vindictive and sociopathic. She has destroyed so many people's lives: defendants, lawyers, clerks and judges."

"It is difficult to accurately convey how awful this judge is to her clerks and staff. I know for certain that she lost five clerks in the span of nine months (four resignations and one termination) and shows no sign of slowing down. Three of the five clerks had degrees from Ivy League law schools. What is, perhaps, most disturbing about Judge Jack's treatment of her clerks is the amount of collateral damage that she wreaks in their lives. People uproot their families, sell their homes and quit lucrative jobs to take clerkships with Judge Jack, only to be forced out months later. Though some of the criticism below is hyperbolic, much of it is accurate. A frightening woman. Anyone thinking of clerking for her should seriously reconsider."

"Has fired/destroyed literally dozens of her law clerks, and seems to enjoy it in a sick sociopathic way. On vacation most of the year also."

"Well, having been in her court room more times than I care to admit, she can be quite mean and cruel to her own law clerks and court staff. I once witnessed her humiliate a probation officer officer who was only doing his job and THEY WORK FOR HER!"

"She's exactly the sort of person you don't want to be a lifetime-appointed judge: someone who is profoundly unhappy with themselves and takes it out on everybody around them. (Her law clerk attrition rate is, I believe, unprecedented among the federal judiciary.)"

"She ruins her clerks, and fires about one a year."

Given these reviews, I think--for a prospective Judge Jack clerk--Robing Room is appropriate to be looked at. I wish I didn't discount it as much before my clerkship with Jack.

In comparison, the Lynn Hughes reviews center around his personality and demeanor in Court, but for two sentences: "He even called his law clerk "boy" (the clerk is white) and thought it was funny. He wants you to laugh at his jokes and then is screaming at you the next minute."

[LikelyThrowaway]

I don't know why but this painting of her made me laugh (and sorry if it's huge):

[Anonymous User]

I don't know why but this painting of her made me laugh (and sorry if it's huge):

That makes the reviews really sink in. Fits the profile imo.

[mjb447]

I don't know why but this painting of her made me laugh (and sorry if it's huge):

[+] Spoiler

... do you mean aside from the obvious?

[Anonymous User]

I don't know why but this painting of her made me laugh (and sorry if it's huge):

It's definitely a weird portrait...

If there are any Judge Jack clerks here who want to impart their experience, I'm all ears. I'm one of the posted above btw so it's great to see other Jack alums giving us some more info on Judge.