SDNY judges to avoid Forum

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SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 14, 2022 3:49 pm

I've heard Berman's name mentioned but any others?

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 14, 2022 4:56 pm

I know someone who had a terrible experience with Buchwald.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 14, 2022 5:03 pm

Koeltl works a lot, but he is a nice guy. Would say avoid if you cannot handle 60+ hours a week. If you can though, I hear it is a great experience.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 14, 2022 5:52 pm

Is Buchwald mean or just works clerks big law hours?

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 14, 2022 6:22 pm

I have heard bad things about Woods -- long hours (even by SDNY standards) and a tough environment in chambers.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 14, 2022 8:26 pm

Absolutely avoid: Berman, Woods, McMahon, Swain

Avoid if other options: Buchwald, Daniels, Marrero

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 14, 2022 9:06 pm

I know someone who sustained psychological damage from her clerkship with Daniels.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 14, 2022 9:20 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Oct 14, 2022 8:26 pm
Absolutely avoid: . . . Swain

Why Swain? I've never heard anything bad about her.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 14, 2022 10:22 pm

As a former SDNY clerk, the only judge I would definitely avoid is Berman. I would also avoid Buchwald as long as she's working remote, which she still was as of last year.

There's another group of judges who I have doubts about but lack the information to say they would be poor experiences. Briccetti and McMahon have reputations for being difficult personalities, but McMahon has an excellent network. Broderick is by far the farthest behind SDNY judge on motions. Marrero's work product is notably poor.

Of people named on this thread I've never heard anything bad about Daniels or Swain, who were lovely in my limited interactions with them, though I can't say I know clerks from either of them. Swain has a lot of administrative responsibilities as chief and also supervises the Puerto Rico bankruptcy, so she has extra clerks.

Many SDNY judges have hours that would be considered exceptionally long in other districts, but treat their clerks well, Koeltl being a good example. The volume of work is high enough that if an active judge isn't working their clerks hard, they are cutting some corners on work product.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 15, 2022 4:25 am

I've read here that both Koeltl and his clerks work long hours. How is this possible? It sounds as if his chambers has more work than others, but this cannot be the case.

It's not as if he were Swain, who as mentioned has chief duties and puerto rico matters on top of her usual motions load and criminal docket.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 15, 2022 8:06 am

I don’t have any inside info re Koeltl, but there are lots of choices that judges can make about how they handle their docket that can increase the workload. In my (non-SDNY) courthouse, my clerkship was strictly 8:30-5 (unless in trial), with work on the weekend maybe 3x. Another judge with the same responsibilities as mine kept his clerks till 7 and had them work on Saturday every weekend. The volume in this district wasn’t comparable to SDNY, but the principle transfers, I think. (And it’s not necessarily a choice between cutting corners and not cutting corners; it’s just different approaches.)

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 15, 2022 11:57 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 4:25 am
I've read here that both Koeltl and his clerks work long hours. How is this possible? It sounds as if his chambers has more work than others, but this cannot be the case.

It's not as if he were Swain, who as mentioned has chief duties and puerto rico matters on top of her usual motions load and criminal docket.
Some judges routinely rule summarily, Koeltl does not. For example, Oetken got reversed under an abuse-of-discretion standard yesterday for failing to explain his basis for issuing a preliminary injunction, which would never happen to Koeltl. And even when Koeltl does rule summarily, his opinions are reasonably detailed; compare the these two recent summary opinions in FLSA cases: 2022 WL 4095910, 2022 WL 4448679.

Another source of work is the degree to which judges edit clerks' work. Some judges don't do much, and basically sign off as long as they agree with the result (I’ve heard Preska—who’s wonderful btw—does this), but some go through many drafts of everything that comes out of chambers.

60 hour weeks are not exceptional for an active SDNY judge, though. Koeltl works hard but no moreso than Cronan next door. The workload versus other districts is a serious downside that should be considered by applicants.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 15, 2022 12:23 pm

Another former SDNY clerk here: Koeltl is a good judge and I don’t think his workload is disproportionate for an active status SDNY judge (Engelmayer and Failla, to name a few, are comparable from what I’ve heard). I have been told, however, that he’s pretty distant from his clerks—he keeps his door closed during the day, doesn’t eat lunch with his clerks, and conducts a lot of chambers business through the exchange of memos rather than conversations. I don’t think it’s a bad clerkship, from what I’ve heard, just maybe a bit more formal/distant than you’d experience with other judges in the building.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 15, 2022 12:34 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 12:23 pm
Another former SDNY clerk here: Koeltl is a good judge and I don’t think his workload is disproportionate for an active status SDNY judge (Engelmayer and Failla, to name a few, are comparable from what I’ve heard). I have been told, however, that he’s pretty distant from his clerks—he keeps his door closed during the day, doesn’t eat lunch with his clerks, and conducts a lot of chambers business through the exchange of memos rather than conversations. I don’t think it’s a bad clerkship, from what I’ve heard, just maybe a bit more formal/distant than you’d experience with other judges in the building.
I was under the impression he was fairly close with clerks (and even interns)? Maybe things have changed.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 15, 2022 1:33 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 11:57 am
For example, Oetken got reversed under an abuse-of-discretion standard yesterday for failing to explain his basis for issuing a preliminary injunction, which would never happen to Koeltl.
...
Another source of work is the degree to which judges edit clerks' work. Some judges don't do much ....
Koeltl works hard but no moreso than Cronan next door.
Very unfortunate RE Oetken. Surprised to see a reversal on that ground happening to him; you see it happening to certain senior district judges, which always causes a laugh in chambers. It's not even a point of ridicule, more of envy. We all wish we could rule summarily to deal with certain motions.

As to your second point, that was exactly what I was trying to say. I.e., it's one thing if a judge did no work and rubber-stamped his clerks' drafts, but Koeltl seems to be burning the midnight fuel, so to speak, alongside his clerks.

Iunderstand Cronan working long hours, because he was a government lifer who did criminal work only. Koeltl, OTOH, had two decades' experience in biglaw civil lit and has served as a DJ for almost three decades. He should know when and how to cut corners to get work done efficiently (and correctly), but it sounds as if there is no corner cutting whatsoever in his chambers.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 15, 2022 5:40 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 12:34 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 12:23 pm
Another former SDNY clerk here: Koeltl is a good judge and I don’t think his workload is disproportionate for an active status SDNY judge (Engelmayer and Failla, to name a few, are comparable from what I’ve heard). I have been told, however, that he’s pretty distant from his clerks—he keeps his door closed during the day, doesn’t eat lunch with his clerks, and conducts a lot of chambers business through the exchange of memos rather than conversations. I don’t think it’s a bad clerkship, from what I’ve heard, just maybe a bit more formal/distant than you’d experience with other judges in the building.
I was under the impression he was fairly close with clerks (and even interns)? Maybe things have changed.
I heard this from a fairly recent Koeltl clerk so it could be a pandemic-era development.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Oct 15, 2022 7:53 pm

Whose good and who should be avoided in EDNY

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:23 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 7:53 pm
Whose good and who should be avoided in EDNY
Good: Brodie, Chen, Donnelly, DeArcy Hall, Amon, Ross, Garaufis, Matsumoto, Amon

Avoid: Kuntz, Irizarry, Mauskopf

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:38 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 7:53 pm
Whose good and who should be avoided in EDNY
Gujarati. Avoid. Like the plague.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:55 pm

How about magistrate judges in either EDNY or SDNY?

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Oct 18, 2022 7:12 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:38 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 7:53 pm
Whose good and who should be avoided in EDNY
Gujarati. Avoid. Like the plague.
Confirm--don't want to go into too much detail, but I've been told that she recently fired a clerk over something petty.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Oct 18, 2022 10:34 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:23 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Oct 15, 2022 7:53 pm
Whose good and who should be avoided in EDNY
Good: Brodie, Chen, Donnelly, DeArcy Hall, Amon, Ross, Garaufis, Matsumoto, Amon

Avoid: Kuntz, Irizarry, Mauskopf
Mauskopf now runs the Judicial Conference so she’s not an active judge

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Oct 18, 2022 10:38 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:55 pm
How about magistrate judges in either EDNY or SDNY?
Wang is a wonderful person and hires public interest-focused students. Tbh all of my experiences with the SDNY MJs as an SDNY DJ clerk were good except with a couple of notoriously incompetent ones who have since retired. It’s the sort of gig that’s hard to get if other lawyers don’t like you.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Oct 19, 2022 7:37 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:55 pm
How about magistrate judges in either EDNY or SDNY?
Have heard great things about Wang and Netburn. Netburn also runs a really cool program in tandem with Abrams for non-violent offenders to get their charges dropped (not conviction, charges, i.e., USAO agree to not prosecute if they do the program—it has like job training, and therapy, and everything. Really cool.

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Re: SDNY judges to avoid

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Oct 19, 2022 12:04 pm

Are Komittee and/or Kovner good to clerk for

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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