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3 Questions For A Law Clerk Turned Advocate For Judicial Accountability (Part I)

Aliza Shatzman, president and founder of The Legal Accountability Project, a nonprofit aimed at ensuring that law clerks have positive clerkship experiences, discusses her work in judicial accountability.

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496701It has been a longer than usual interlude between interviews for this column, an issue that I hope to rectify as the end of the year approaches. To start, I am happy to have had the recent opportunity to interview a fellow Above the Law contributor, Aliza Shatzman. From the time I first read about her work seeking increased accountability for members of the judiciary, to her highlighting of the “inadequate options” available to law clerks facing a hostile work environment, I have respected her willingness to press forward on behalf of issues that many other lawyers have long ignored. Her voice has been an important one with respect to improving the lives of law clerks and judicial employees, so I wanted to reach out to see whether there were things that could be done to help improve the situation for IP associates facing similar workplace challenges. Because we all know that even the most protective and supportive law firms and corporate legal departments are not without snakes in their midst, whose venom is often directed to the most vulnerable around them. Good firms and companies do their best to cut out these abusers as soon as possible. But the damage wrought by them upon junior employees and staff can be enough to derail promising careers, while also bringing severe harm to an organization’s reputation. My hope, therefore, is that Aliza’s work on behalf of judicial employees will be noted by IP leaders nationwide as part of an effort to increase awareness of and root out workplace misconduct in the IP community.

First, however, let me tell you more about Aliza and her important work. She is the president and founder of The Legal Accountability Project, a nonprofit aimed at ensuring that law clerks have positive clerkship experiences and at extending support and resources to those who do not. Aliza earned her bachelor’s degree from Williams College and her law degree from Washington University School of Law. After law school, Aliza clerked in D.C. Superior Court during the 2019-2020 term.

In March 2022, Aliza submitted written testimony for a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing about the lack of workplace protections in the federal judiciary, detailing her personal experience with gender discrimination, harassment, and retaliation by a former D.C. judge, in order to advocate for the Judiciary Accountability Act, legislation that would extend Title VII protections to judiciary employees, including law clerks.

Aliza now writes and speaks regularly about judicial accountability. She has been published in numerous law journals and mainstream publications, including the Columbia Law Review, Harvard Journal on Legislation, UCLA Journal of Gender & Law, Yale Law & Policy Review, NYU Journal of Legislation & Public Policy, Administrative Law Review, Law360, Slate, Bloomberg Law, Ms. Magazine, and Balls & Strikes. She is also a regular contributor at Above the Law. (You can reach out to Aliza via email at Aliza.Shatzman@legalaccountabilityproject.org and follow her on X (formerly Twitter)  @AlizaShatzman.)

Now to the interview. As usual, I have added some brief commentary to Aliza’s answer below but have otherwise presented her answer to my question as she provided it.

Gaston Kroub: What are the elements of success necessary for a positive clerkship, particularly for clerks pursuing a career in IP litigation?

Aliza Shatzman: Law schools — and the legal community — message clerkships as creating lifelong mentor/mentee relationships between judges and clerks, creating the expectation that a clerkship will confer only professional benefits. That’s a disservice to law students and law clerks. We should instead treat a clerkship as a job like any other, where new attorneys spend a year or two gaining useful training as a springboard to future career success. Like any job or internship, perhaps your employer will be a lifelong mentor. But perhaps they won’t. That’s okay, too.

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The elements for a positive clerkship are generally the same, regardless of the clerk’s intended practice area. Both judge and clerk have a role to play in ensuring a positive experience — and, more generally, a positive work environment and chambers culture.

Law clerks should expect to gain writing and research experience. They should also develop interpersonal skills. They’ll work long hours in stressful circumstances in a small, hierarchical work environment with only a few coworkers and a powerful judge. If they didn’t enter their clerkships understanding how to engage respectfully and effectively with authority figures, they’ll learn. Clerks will learn how to respectfully assert themselves, respectfully dissent, adapt to different work styles, and prioritize tasks based on the principal’s expectations. For clerks who aspire to become trial attorneys, as I did, accompanying the judge to court is an excellent way to learn about the best (and worst) of trial advocacy from the attorneys who appear before the court, and to learn from the judge afterward about what was persuasive to them. Clerks should expect to gain insight into judicial decision-making that will be beneficial to their future careers — whether they appear before the court regularly in their practice or engage with the court primarily through written materials.

Many judges view mentoring clerks as an important part of their role as judges. But, as I argued in Above the Law, not every good jurist is a good manager. Every judge has room to improve. Judges must be mindful that they’re running small workplaces, tasked with shaping the careers of the next generation of thinkers and leaders. Of course, every judge has their own unique workstyle. But both judge and clerk should try to adapt to make the work environment inclusive and welcoming for everyone. Judges should consider how they train and supervise clerks, how they provide feedback, and how they interact with clerks without letting the day-to-day stressors of the job create conflict.

At a minimum, for a clerkship to be positive, judges should not bully, harass, or discriminate against — or retaliate against — clerks. I hear often from clerks that their judges refuse to train clerks when they start their clerkships, then berate clerks for perceived mistakes. Creating a clerkship handbook is necessary but not sufficient: one-on-one training and ongoing feedback are important. I also hear about judges who yell or even throw things. The work environment may be stressful, and there may be a learning curve for some clerks, but that’s no excuse for this type of poor behavior. Judges model behavior for their clerks, which they’ll take not only to their next jobs but also to future supervisory roles. Disrespecting or mistreating clerks sends a message that this is acceptable behavior when today’s clerks are tomorrow’s U.S. attorneys, public defenders, Biglaw partners, law professors, and judges themselves. Every judge should take a hard look at their role as manager and mentor; and every clerk should enter their clerkship with eyes wide open about the work environment they’re entering.

GK: Aliza’s clarion call for judicial accountability is a message worth heeding, both by members of the judiciary but also by law firm managers and leaders in corporate legal departments. No doubt, many legal workplaces are busy, stressful environments, where high-quality work must be generated under demanding circumstances, but that is no excuse for improper treatment of less-senior employees, whether they be law clerks, associates, or staff. My hope is that LAP’s shining of a spotlight on these issues in the judiciary will also spur more attention to eradicating hostile workplace behavior throughout every level of the IP ecosystem.

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Next week, Aliza will talk about what law firms can be doing to support LAP’s efforts and why they would benefit from doing so. Sher will also share her thoughts on the level of commitment the judiciary is to correcting past and ongoing wrongs inflicted on employees by its members.

Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.

Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique, and Markman Advisors LLC, a leading consultancy on patent issues for the investment community. Gaston’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.

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