Cannon Fodder: Law Clerks Quit On Judge Aileen Cannon

Her slowness in the Trump documents case could be due to personnel problems in chambers.

Judge Aileen Cannon (public domain)

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On Tuesday, the New York Times published an article titled, “Judge in Trump Documents Case Draws Attention for Slow Pace.” Reporter Alan Feuer wrote that Judge Aileen M. Cannon “has done herself no favors by allowing a logjam of unresolved issues to build up on her docket, and “that pileup appears to have kept her from reaching a prompt decision on the timing of the case”—reflected in how she still hasn’t set a trial date, some three weeks after holding a hearing on the matter.

I have an idea of at least one factor behind the delays: Judge Cannon has had at least two law clerks quit on her, according to multiple sources—including individuals who serve in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where she sits.

Why is this significant? Readers of Original Jurisdiction are very familiar with the crucial role that law clerks play in the federal judicial system, which simply couldn’t function without them. But for folks who are new to this newsletter, here’s some brief background about what judicial clerks do and why they’re so important.

Contrary to the humble-sounding job title, a law clerk’s role is substantive, not clerical or administrative. Law clerks assist federal judges by researching and advising them on legal issues, helping them prepare for hearings and trials, and drafting opinions. Clerks are generally recent law school graduates with impeccable academic credentials, and federal clerkships are prestigious positions. Obtaining a clerkship is a highly competitive process; completing a clerkship, which usually lasts a year or two, is great for one’s résumé, helping to open many doors within the legal profession.

In addition to the sheer importance of the role played by clerks in the judicial process, here are additional facts underscoring the significance of Judge Aileen Cannon having two (or more) clerks quit on her:

1. A federal district judge usually hires only two to three law clerks each year, so for two clerks to quit is quite notable. It’s nothing like a few associates quitting a 1,000-lawyer firm. And Judge Cannon, who took the bench in November 2020, has been a judge for less than four years—so she’s probably had a total of only eight to twelve clerks over her entire tenure.

2. As followers of the clerkship world well know, it’s highly unusual for a clerk to quit on a judge. Because a federal judicial clerkship typically lasts one year and is an extremely valuable credential, most clerks will “ride it out” instead of quitting, even if they’re miserable or have issues with their judge. The clerkship lasts only a year; the résumé value lasts for a career. For a law clerk to quit before the year is up often involves an extremely unpleasant situation in chambers.¹

3. As current and former judges and clerks can tell you, it’s highly disruptive to the work of a chambers when even one clerk quits, to say nothing of two. Judges in busy districts like the Southern District of Florida have heavy caseloads, but only two to three law clerks to help them handle all that work. To be short-staffed for even a brief period of time can generate a backlog very quickly.
   
   And even if clerks who leave get replaced immediately—which doesn’t always happen, especially if clerks quit on short notice, or the judge is too busy to focus on hiring—successor clerks need to get up to speed, on both chambers procedures and the substance of cases. This is very time-consuming, especially in complex cases like the Trump classified-documents prosecution.

So if there has been any unexpected turnover in Judge Cannon’s chambers over the nine months that she’s had the Trump case, the fact that she’s struggling to keep up with all the work in it becomes less surprising. In fact, it would be surprising if a judge handling such a major case did not fall behind after losing two clerks.²

What does Judge Cannon have to say about clerks quitting on her? Over the past few days, I have sent multiple emails to the Public Information Office for the Southern District of Florida and to Judge Cannon’s chambers, requesting comment on reports that at least two of her clerks have departed before the scheduled end of their clerkships. I have received read receipts, but no responses (even though, in my experience, subjects are eager to warn me off bad information—for which I’m always grateful). If I do hear back, I will immediately update this post, of course.

I should be clear about what I don’t know. My sources have been circumspect so far, and despite my best efforts, I have been unable to determine precisely why these clerks quit, when they departed, and if they have already been replaced or the Cannon chambers is operating short-staffed.³

But based on my experience, I believe that once the fact of the clerks’ quitting becomes public, the floodgates will open. Details about the Cannon clerk departures will become more widely known, whether reported by me or others. Additional information about other personnel issues in her chambers—possibly involving employees other than clerks, such as judicial assistants or courtroom deputies—could emerge. So one reason I’ve decided to publish this post, despite lacking certain key details, is to prime the pump—to encourage sources to come forward with more information, and to encourage other journalists to follow up on my reporting.⁴

If you can provide additional information about what’s going on in the Cannon chambers, please contact me by email (davidlat@substack.com) or text message (917-397-2751). I’m eager to write a follow-up report with more details. And if any of my information is wrong, I will correct it promptly and prominently, as I always do.

To sum up, why does it matter that two or more clerks have quit on Judge Cannon? Under normal circumstances, turnover in a judicial staff is nothing more than fodder for water-cooler chitchat (or maybe a novel, if you add some drama).

In this case, however, personnel problems in Judge Cannon’s chambers appear to be impeding the progress of an incredibly important, high-profile criminal case. And when a judge’s difficulties in running her chambers start to affect the administration of justice, that transcends gossip and becomes a matter of legitimate public concern.

UPDATES: As predicted, the information is flooding in. Please watch this space for updates. For now, I can report the following (with timestamps indicating when I added the update):

1. One clerk who was slated to serve for two years left after one year, sometime in 2023, after having a child. I flagged this possibility in footnote 1: “Perhaps the clerks had personal issues; sometimes clerks quit because of medical or family issues that arise during their clerkships.” [10:38 a.m.]

2. Another clerk quit for reasons that are currently unclear—and this person’s law-school classmates have been buzzing about the news. [10:38 a.m.]

3. Upon information and belief, the clerk who left for personal reasons departed in October 2023, after serving for roughly one year and two months. [10:59 a.m.]

4. Actually, I’m still sorting out which clerk left for which reasons, but I believe that one clerk left in October 2023 and another clerk left in December 2023. [11:12 a.m.]

5. Judge Cannon’s chambers is fully staffed as of now, as reflected in an internal page available to anyone within the federal judiciary. [11:13 a.m.]

6. In fact, Judge Cannon is arguably “overstaffed” at the current time: she currently has three term clerks, i.e., clerks who are there for a set period of time (one to two years), and one temporary clerk. District judges typically have two to three clerks (depending on whether they convert their judicial-assistant or “JA” slot to a clerk slot); Judge Cannon has four clerks, counting the temporary one. [11:35 a.m.]

7. Judge Cannon received the Trump case in June 2023. Clerks traditionally change over during the summer. So in a chambers with normal turnover, she would have had one set of clerks from roughly the start of the case through the summer, when the trial is currently expected to get underway—a very logical setup or transition point. [1:27 p.m.]

8. But instead, of her four current clerks, one started in August 2023, one started in October 2023, and two started in January 2024 (per the Microsoft Teams page for her chambers that can be accessed by anyone in the federal judiciary). To have this many clerks change over in the middle of a term or judicial year, with a case like the Trump one in chambers, was surely very disruptive and delay-inducing. [1:27 p.m.]

9. Here are some thoughts from a former Judge Cannon clerk, who praised the judge and their clerkship experience:
   
   ”I had a wonderful experience clerking for Judge Cannon. Through her Honor’s mentorship and guidance, I developed in a way that I did not know I was capable of. My time in chambers with the Judge prepared me to overcome any professional challenge I might come across. I will always feel honored and privileged to have served as one of the Judge’s first law clerks.”
   
   ”I respect and admire the Judge as a boss/manager because of her work ethic and unwavering commitment to consistently producing excellent work. Judge Cannon demonstrated her devotion to the rule of law every single day. The Judge, for example, never went into a single motion hearing or entered an order without being adequately prepared. Judge Cannon feels a high sense of duty toward the public and she showed that everyday by, among other things, carefully considering every single matter that was pending before her. Judge Cannon had a lot of confidence in our abilities and she gave us a lot of responsibility in chambers, which prepared us to be effective lawyers in any substantive practice area.”
   
   ”I do not know anything about whether subsequent clerks have left chambers before their term concluded, so I prefer not to engage in conjecture on that score. Personally, I would be surprised if any law clerk left chambers early for [negative reasons]. In my case, the notion of leaving chambers prematurely never crossed my mind during my time with the Judge.” [1:35 p.m.]

10. Here’s another testimonial, from Jesse Panuccio—a prominent Florida litigator, former Acting Associate Attorney General (the #3 role at the U.S. Justice Department), and current partner at Boies Schiller Flexner:
    
    “I’ve known Judge Cannon for more than 20 years, and throughout all that time I have been impressed with her intelligence, poise, and humility. She had a sterling résumé and great reputation before she took the bench. The attacks on her are obviously being made by partisan bad actors with political agendas, not by anyone closely familiar with her work, her life, or the judiciary in Florida.” [1:45 p.m.]

11. Of the four clerks—with start dates of August 2023, October 2023, and January 2024 (for two of them)—the clerk designated as “Law Clerk - Temporary” is one of the two January 2024 hires. Interestingly enough, the August 2023 clerk and the temp clerk from January 2024 went to the same T100 law school, which sends less than 1 percent of its graduates into federal clerkships (so I wouldn’t be surprised if the August 2023 clerk helped recruit the temp clerk). [4:32 p.m.]

12. What’s the deal with the “temp” clerk? Judges who need extra help in chambers—like judges with super-complex cases like the Trump case, or judges overseeing multidistrict litigations (MDLs)—can get extra clerk help on a temporary basis. This clerk could be funded by the Temporary Emergency Fund (TEF), which is a pool of money that each circuit’s judicial council distributes in response to applications from judges, or this clerk could be “borrowed” from a judge who has funding for more clerks than they need. [4:32 p.m.]

13. A federal district judge who has handled a number of sensitive cases over the years pointed out to me the possibility that some of Judge Cannon’s clerks might not be able to work on the case, if they don’t have the requisite security clearances. The process of getting a clearance can take several months, and two of her four clerks started only in January (but it is likely, this judge said, that the processing of clerk clearances for the Trump case would be expedited). [4:32 p.m.]

14. At this point, I’m planning to write an epic post for tomorrow about goings-on in the Cannon chambers, so keep an eye out for that. But for the record, I finally did hear back from the Southern District of Florida’s Public Information Office: “The Court cannot comment on HR-related matters.”

15. Here is the promised epic post, Clerking For Judge Aileen Cannon: A Behind-The-Scenes Look. It provides the detail—and drama—that this post lacks. [3/22/2024, 12:14 p.m.]

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1. To be clear, as I note later in this post, I don’t have the details about why the Cannon clerks quit. So it would be premature to assume it’s the fault of Judge Cannon.

Perhaps the clerks had personal issues; sometimes clerks quit because of medical or family issues that arise during their clerkships. Perhaps the clerks couldn’t handle the stress or long hours that must surely be accompanying the Trump case (although one would think that getting to work on a history-making case would make up for some of this).

And in defense of Judge Cannon, who has been the subject of widespread public criticism, I have heard some positive reports about her from lawyers and judges who know her. For the record, I don’t agree with criticisms of her as unintelligent or evil; I believe she’s simply out of her depth (as discussed below).

2. I don’t believe personnel issues in chambers are the only or even primary factor behind the delays and other problems with Judge Cannon’s handling of this case (reflected most recently in a bizarre order about jury instructions that experts quoted by the Washington Post and USA Today called “very troubling,” “baffling,” “insane,” “crazy,” and “nuts”).

I believe the biggest issue is her lack of experience with complex trials. She handled only four jury trials as a lawyer, and at the time of her assignment to the Trump documents case last June, she had overseen only four jury trials as a judge. None of the trials she presided over lasted longer than five days; the trial in the Trump case is expected to last four or five weeks.

In the words of Professor Samuel Buell, a former federal prosecutor, “Based on what we know about her professional biography, this judge is completely inexperienced with complex criminal litigation, and this is a case in which complexity is inherent because of the national-security aspects.”

Depending on the information I receive in response to this post, I might do a deeper dive into Judge Cannon and her handling of the Trump documents case. I believe the situation raises a number of interesting and important issues about the federal judiciary.

3. There are no current clerkship openings for Judge Cannon listed in the OSCAR clerkships database. But it appears that she, like many Republican appointees, doesn’t use OSCAR; she hasn’t listed a position there since 2021.

There are also no clerkships with her listed on the S.D. Fla. jobs page. But given the scrutiny she’s under right now, I can see why she wouldn’t want to post a public “help wanted” ad. Also, much clerkship hiring is done through word of mouth, back channels, and personal recommendations, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Judge Cannon operates this way (as do many other judges with ties to the Federalist Society, a powerful networking resource).

4. It is possible, however, that we might get fewer details about what’s going on inside the Cannon chambers than I’m expecting. First, recall that Judge Cannon is the only judge in her courthouse, the satellite courthouse in Fort Pierce, so she and her clerks are already somewhat isolated from their S.D. Fla. counterparts. Second, sources tell me that Judge Cannon and her clerks largely keep to themselves these days—which is understandable, given both their work on an extremely sensitive case and the apparent disarray in chambers.