Options for Law Clerks to Address Wrongful Conduct? It’s A Short List.

Federal law clerks have woefully inadequate options to address wrongful conduct by judges - Employee Dispute Resolution (EDR) and the Judicial Conduct & Disability Act, as well as a third option that too many clerks are encouraged to choose - stay silent after experiencing mistreatment and hope the judge who mistreated you does not also attempt to derail your career.

The federal judiciary has failed to meaningfully address law clerks’ concerns, particularly about retaliation. This precludes reporting.
Aliza suggests several solutions to truly address clerks’ concerns, including:

1. Support the Judiciary Accountability Act (JAA), which would extend Title VII protections, including protection against retaliation, to judiciary employees. It would also revise the judicial complaint process, standardize EDRs, create several confidential reporting channels, and establish a process to connect law clerks with legal counsel.
2. Train judges on their role as managers, as well as on EDR. These trainings should be annual and mandatory. If they’re optional, judges who treat their clerks with respect will participate, while those engaging in misconduct will evade training.
3. Warn judges they’ll be disciplined for retaliating against clerks who report mistreatment. Fear of retaliation is the main reason clerks do not report, yet the judiciary has taken no meaningful steps to prevent this.
4. Create a point of contact in each circuit for former clerks to seek help in preventing retaliation. Former clerks who reported and now fear retaliation could reach out to alert this contact of upcoming job interviews: the contact could remind the judge that retaliation is prohibited, and they’ll be disciplined for doing so.
5. Collect and publicly report annual data on employees’ use of EDR.

Until the judiciary takes meaningful steps to prevent judges from retaliating against clerks, they'll never meaningfully address wrongful conduct.