The Management of Staff by Federal Court of Appeals Judges
U of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 531
Duke Law School Public Law & Legal Theory Series No. 2015-17
17 Pages Posted: 6 Apr 2015 Last revised: 21 Aug 2015
Date Written: August 21, 2015
Abstract
Federal court of appeals judges have staffs consisting usually of a secretary and four law clerks; some judges have externs as (law students working part time without pay). These staffs are essential, given judicial workloads and judges’ limitations. Yet not much is known about how the judges manage their staffs. Each judge knows, of course, but judges rarely exchange information about staff management. Nor is there, to our knowledge, a literature that attempts to compare and evaluate the varieties of staff management techniques employed by federal court of appeals judges. This article aims to fill that gap. It is based on interviews, some in person, most by telephone, of 75 judges drawn from a number of different federal courts of appeals.
Keywords: Federal Courts, Management of Law Clerks, Court Administration
JEL Classification: K40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation