Judging the judges: New database lets law clerks speak out

(Reuters) - Lawyers often regard being a judicial clerk as one of the best professional experiences of their lives. But for Aliza Shatzman, it was the worst.

After what she describes as a disastrous stint clerking for a judge (who is no longer on the bench) in Washington, D.C., Superior Court, Shatzman, 31, is on a mission.

A year ago, she founded the nonprofit Legal Accountability Project, pledging to build a national database of reviews by former clerks to candidly — and if they prefer, anonymously — judge their judges as bosses and mentors. The goal: to give prospective clerkship applicants a clearer idea of what they’re getting into.

As federal judges this week begin hiring their next round of clerks, it’s easy for me to see the value of such insider feedback. Clerks work in close quarters with their judges, forging relationships that are both personal and professional —and that can profoundly impact the trajectory of a new lawyer’s career. It’s in everyone’s best interest for the experience to be a good one.

I know lots of lawyers who rave about “their” judges for years after their clerkships. But I also know a quiet few who had bad experiences, either quitting early or gritting their teeth until the year was over.

“There’s a dearth of information about judges as managers and the clerkship experience,” said Shatzman, who in 2022 shared her story with a congressional subcommittee looking at gaps in workplace protections for federal judiciary employees.

The clerkship database is slated to go live this fall, and Shatzman said the project will announce its law school partners at that time.

Still, some schools are not enthusiastic. Among the naysayers is Shatzman’s alma mater, Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.

“We are not endorsing it,” dean Russell Osgood told me.

A primary concern is accuracy, he said. “We have no capacity to test the veracity of any accusations” against judges, especially if the review is anonymous.

It’s a valid consideration — though Shatzman told me she verifies the identities of all survey respondents to make sure they did in fact clerk for the judge they’re reviewing. Journalists and other members of the public will not have access to the database, nor will the judges themselves.

“I’m sure that there are probably judges who have some apprehension about this,” said Judge Douglas Nazarian of the Maryland Court of Appeals, who earlier this month joined the project’s board of directors. Judges “won’t know about or be able to respond to” critical comments.

But Nazarian sees countervailing values. “The goal is to create an opportunity for students to get information about all aspects of the experience from (past) clerks, so they can make an informed decision about who to apply to clerk for,” he said.

As is, law students tend to rely on what Shatzman calls “whisper networks” for scuttlebutt on judges, plus whatever insights their individual schools may have gleaned — a siloed system that leaves room for major gaps in information.

The project's clerkship survey poses questions on topics including the interview process, workload, how feedback is provided and whether the clerk observed or experienced any discrimination, harassment or retaliation on the job.

The database serves as a "neutral tool" for user-generated content, Shatzman said, without creating, developing or transforming the information. As such, she said, the project is shielded from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

"I'm not at all worried about false allegations," Shatzman said. "We don't have a culture of false allegations against judges. We have a culture of fear and under-reporting."

While public reports of judges harassing or otherwise mistreating their clerks are rare, a few instances in recent years have come to light.

In 2017, for example, Judge Alex Kozinski retired from the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court amid an investigation after former clerks and other junior staffers accused him of subjecting them to inappropriate sexual conduct or comments.

Kozinski denied the claims and said at the time that it was never his intention to make his clerks feel uncomfortable. Now in private practice, he did not respond to a request for comment.

His 9th Circuit colleague Stephen Reinhardt, who died in 2018, was also accused of sexual harassment by a former clerk, who testified before Congress in 2020 about the alleged misconduct, which occurred in the final year of the judge’s life.

In a hearing two years later, Shatzman in a written statement to the House Judiciary subcommittee detailed the harassment she said she experienced while clerking from August 2019 to May 2020.

Per a settlement agreement, she’s not able to name the judge, whom she said is no longer on the bench for reasons unrelated to her complaint.

In her statement, Shatzman recounted how the judge said she made him “uncomfortable” and would demand that she leave his courtroom while allowing her male co-clerk to stay.

The judge allegedly told her she was bossy — and “I know bossy because my wife is bossy” — as well as “aggressive” and “nasty.” During the COVID-19 shutdown, he ended her clerkship four months early but said he would provide a “neutral” reference, she said.

That was crucial. Post-clerkship, Shatzman was offered her dream job as a federal prosecutor, subject to a successful background check. Instead, she said, the judge gave a misleading, negative reference that tanked her security clearance.

Shatzman lost the job offer, she said, even though the judge later agreed to "clarify" some of the statements he made about her.

After the experience, Shatzman wanted to help other would-be clerks avoid a similar fate. She quit her job as a family law attorney last year to work full time on the project, which is currently being funded by individual donations, she said. Shatzman declined to say how much funding she has raised.

The project will generate revenue once the database launches. Law schools will pay $5 per student for access, with the total cost based on the school’s J.D. enrollment. (A school with 1,000 students, for example, would pay $5,000.) Individual students will also be able to buy access for a to-be-determined price.

“Considering the outsized influence of a clerkship on a new attorney’s future career success and the enormous premium the legal community places on clerkships," she said, "we owe it to the next generation of attorneys to ensure transparency, accountability and safe workplaces."

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