You Be the (Future) Judge

By Hon. David S. Jones1

Dear Current or Future Practitioner,

I’ve been a bankruptcy judge for more than 3½ years, which astoundingly is 25 percent of my 14-year term. This has me feeling (1) reflective; (2) grateful; (3) awestruck by my colleagues in my home court and around the country; (4) keenly aware of our nation’s need for competent, responsive, fair judges and courts with an unshakeable commitment to integrity; (5) firmly committed to our mission; and (6) eager for you to follow in my footsteps.

Judging is challenging, rewarding and critical to making our society and economy fair and workable. The courts, including bankruptcy courts, continuously depend on having terrific new people come forward to take on this privilege and responsibility. Please think seriously about whether you might be a future judge.

I hope this column will open good people’s eyes to the possibility and expand the pool of applicants. To that end, I offer some practical pointers and reflections from one judge’s perspective. Even if you’re sure you don’t want to be a judge, this may alert you to other career-enhancing possibilities while shedding light on what makes at least one person you appear before tick.

Who, Me?

Yes, you. At least, if you have a desire to serve, and a belief that the judiciary matters.

We judges aren’t a different species. We’re people who found the job appealing and could envision ourselves filling the critical role that judges play. We come from many personal and professional backgrounds, and the paths we followed differ, but we all worked hard, we developed valuable knowledge and skills, we sought the job, and we were lucky enough to be chosen for it.

You owe it to yourself to at least think about whether this important and rewarding job could be for you someday. If you’re even a little bit interested, don’t wait; you should start making yourself the best candidate and the best possible judge you can be. Fortunately, the best way to be a good candidate is to build skills and experience that will serve you well in the job, because the selectors — that’s the courts of appeals2 for us bankruptcy judges — are keenly focused on picking people who they think will make excellent judges. If you’re not lucky enough to be selected, no harm done; you’ll have learned useful things, made yourself a better lawyer and had some enriching experiences.

How Do I Start Thinking About This?

Fortunately, there is no one required path to this job, and no one required credential. Here are a few suggestions for how you might develop your candidacy, whoever you are and whatever you do.

Consider What Selectors Are Looking For

If becoming a judge appeals to you, think early about how you might do so. Don’t view this as merely a packaging exercise; view it as an opportunity to identify your own sense of what constitutes a good judge, and how you can be such a person. Always remember that you can shape and deepen your own experiences, knowledge and skills. This is an opportunity for useful reflection, whether you do or do not become a judge. To help you make your decision, I have two practical recommendations.

First, search for bios and appointment announcements for current bankruptcy judges in your area and nationwide. Court-posted bios tend to be cursory, but appointment announcements and related press often describe new judges’ backgrounds in a way that reveals what people thought made them good candidates at the time of the appointment. At the same time, remember that there’s no one required pathway or formula for what makes a successful applicant.

Second, look at the applications that are used to screen candidates. Openings for bankruptcy judgeships are posted on relevant court websites. Search online to find current or past announcements and application forms. The version used in a recent Eastern District of New York search3 will give you a sense of what selectors think will help them identify good applicants. However, don’t rule yourself out if you don’t think you’re dazzling in all the areas they ask about. No one is.

The required information includes a complete employment history with supervisory or other employer contacts; education and post-law school training; information about your practice of law; and five to eight references. Applicants also must list all of the cases they’ve tried and appeals they’ve handled, along with the names of the attorneys on each case, including adversaries. This lets the selectors contact people who aren’t your hand-picked supporters.

The application also calls for a number of more reflective written responses. The topics give a feel for areas that are deemed important. They also let you explain to the selectors why you think you’re well-suited to the job. They also can help you think through for yourself what your professional values and attributes are, and how you might enhance your qualifications and skills before you apply. Examples include a written description of “your current legal practice,” including “any legal specialties you possess and the characteristics of your typical clients,” along with any prior practice areas; your “civic, philanthropic, community, social, or public service activities during the past five years”; 500 words or less “stat[ing] any achievements or actions you have accomplished, demonstrating your commitment to equal justice under law”; and another 500 words or less “stat[ing] any additional education or other experiences you believe would assist you in holding judicial office.”

Try to Excel at Whatever You Do; Also Seek Wide-Ranging Skills

Bankruptcy judges come from varied backgrounds, but we share a commitment to being the best public servants we can be, and to capably and timely meeting the needs of every case before us. We take our jobs seriously, which requires a commitment to excellence, or at least striving for excellence. It’s a transferable habit you should develop early and apply to whatever you’re doing. It will serve you well whatever you do, and a reputation for excellence is a virtual prerequisite for selection as a judge.

Being a judge requires a broad array of skills. We manage a tiny law office (clerks and other chambers staff), we participate in our courts’ administrative work, we manage cases and set innumerable deadlines, we preside over hearings and conferences, we decide motions orally and in writing, and we preside over trials with the attendant need to apply procedural and evidentiary rules and make findings of fact and conclusions of law. We must respond sensitively, fairly and soundly to issues facing people and businesses at a time of immense stress, so emotional intelligence is needed, too. We also have a civic role, ideally participating in public-facing educational and professional activities. It’s a lot! Look for experiences that will prepare you to do those sorts of things.

Few careers cause any lawyer to develop skills in all of the areas that judges do their best to master. Selectors understand that, but try to broaden your experiences as much as you can. Get into court even in ancillary ways. Consider pro bono work or clinical instruction as a way to obtain courtroom advocacy skills that you might not otherwise develop, and publish or look for adjunct professor positions if your practice doesn’t involve much demonstrable legal analysis and writing.

Spend Time in Court (and Think About What Judges Are Doing and Why)

I spent 24 years as a government civil litigator in a large district, appearing before many judges (bankruptcy, magistrate, district and circuit) and supervising colleagues for countless appearances. This was invaluable to me, both to hone my lawyering skills and to be exposed to a range of ways judges go about their jobs.

Seek exposure to as many judges and courts as you can. Think about what each judge is doing, and why. Think about what traits and practices you think work well, and which could be better. As you’re doing this, think about how you would go about doing whatever it is the judge is doing. Don’t think you’re looking for the one uniquely and objectively best way to manage things; think about what you’d look for to make Judge You best able to adjudicate the matter.

The me that now is being a judge isn’t fundamentally different from the pre-judge me. I’m just playing a new role and using (and growing) new skills, trying to employ practices that help me do my job as well as I can. So you shouldn’t just think about how Judge X does such-and-so, or Judge Y’s way of doing some other thing. Think about how you would set about doing the court’s work at hand, and what techniques and approaches you think would help you discharge your duties as a judge. While you’re at it, if you think as I do that a judge shouldn’t make life unnecessarily difficult for lawyers and parties, keep in mind your lawyerly likes and dislikes so that later, you can run a user-friendly court and avoid practices that irk you now.

Bar and Other Professional Engagements

I feel like an atypical judge in that I had limited bar association service. However, I had a career in public service and I had served the profession in other ways. I was training government litigators, including by teaching at the National Advocacy Center; working for the U.S. Attorney’s Office on projects that required engagement with court officials; serving as an evaluator of the performance of other U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the nation; and serving in a number of volunteer civic capacities.

So you can be you, and whatever engagement speaks to you can be worthy preparation. However, it seems rare to find a judge who hasn’t done some form of “extracurricular” service or activity. Therefore, I would seek out opportunities that speak to you, whatever those might be.

In particular, bar organizations and committee work enable you to develop expertise, learn about topics and practice areas outside of what your day job requires, make valuable connections, and broaden your exposure to the breadth of the legal community and the issues it considers. This sort of work provides opportunities to serve and to lead, which translate well to court service. ABI, the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and many other organizations have programs and activities aimed at younger or recently minted attorneys. These can impart knowledge, yield mentors, give you an opportunity for leadership and service, and let you develop professional friendships with your peers.

Also consider teaching and/or publishing. This can be manageable. The world needs mock-trial and moot court judges and advisors, as well as CLE presenters. Any form of teaching, mentorship or writing can be rewarding and knowledge-enhancing. Further, my impression is that it will strengthen your judgeship candidacy by showing your energy and commitment to the profession, your analytical skills and interests, your curiosity, and your ability to generate thoughtful legal analysis.

Civic and Community Engagement/Live Your Best Life

Too often, professional-development advice seems to assume that the reader is some sort of career-maximizing robot with no other interests or responsibilities. I encourage you to give yourself permission to be more than that. I certainly have. I enjoy my family and friends (some are nonlawyers); I run; I have a dog (our fourth), and a demanding border collie at that. I hike and travel. I read for fun. I’m an arts enthusiast. I’m actively engaged in my church community, where I’ve held leadership positions. My life would be poorer and I’d be less happy without these nonwork aspects of my life.

I can’t tell you what will make you most happy, but please don’t assume that you can’t have a personal life or outside interests and still be a serious professional. In fact, I think having an “outside” life can prepare you to be a better judge than you might be otherwise.

As noted, we judges need emotional intelligence and empathy. A lot of our job is talking to people and listening intently to them, evaluating and understanding what they are saying to us, and trying to convey to them our commitment to hearing them fairly and seriously as we try to make appropriate decisions. I am convinced my nonwork body of lived experience makes me better at these facets of my job.

Conclusion

To end where I started, the nation needs terrific judges. It always will. One of them might as well be you, if you’ve got the desire, the aptitudes and attributes, and the luck to be selected. Your odds will increase if you start thinking about it sooner rather than later, and you will benefit from the exercise even if — in the end — you never apply or get selected. No matter what happens, you’ll have engaged in valuable reflection, developed your skills, and had enriching experiences that you might otherwise never have had.

Hon. David Jones is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of New York in New York, sworn in on Feb. 19, 2021.