Legal Life: Gold Robes and Marble Turtles

New attorneys, here’s something no one tells you in law school: Judges are just people. Sure, lately it feels like they’re the last line keeping the legal dam from bursting, especially when judges stand up to government overreach and insist on playing by the rules. But your job is not to worship or to fear the robe. It’s to pay attention to the process and the small, human details everyone else misses.​​

I Left My MCLE in San Francisco

Last month, I logged on to what I thought was a grand statewide webinar, only to realize I was crashing the San Francisco County Superior Court’s landlord-tenant law coffee hour. Out of curiosity, I looked up the judge leading the discussion. The Tenderloin Housing Clinic (a group every tenant attorney knows) had filed a motion to disqualify him for bias against tenants and their attorneys. Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. Judges aren’t immune to picking favorites or letting a groove become a rut. And bias is rarely a headline scandal. Often, it’s a quiet mistake, human and almost invisible until it lands on your client’s back.​

The Mock Trial and the Missed Call

If you think you’re above it all, let me tell you about my first taste of the bench: High school. I presided over “court” in an itchy gold graduation gown (Mahopac fashion…don’t ask). I chose the winner of our mock trial, not on merit, but out of irritation and discomfort. Laura, my formidable classmate, out-argued everyone, as usual, but I handed the win to Jeffrey because he smiled and didn’t make me feel small. Laura was furious. She should have been. And she let me know with the clarity you only get in high school. Even 16-year-olds with a robe have the power to tilt the scales for all the wrong reasons.

Justice Is Human 

Here’s the lesson: Everyone’s got a shadow. That goes for judges, opposing counsel, and, yes, you and me. That’s why you argue the tentative, why you file the challenge, even if it makes you nervous, even if everyone else rolls their eyes. The justice system needs your skepticism as much as your faith.

You’ll see judges at their best, standing up to powerful interests and holding the line. You’ll also see them on their worst days, absent, distracted, maybe even in the middle of their own scandal. Your job isn’t to make excuses for anybody or put anyone on a pedestal. It’s to pay close attention and show up honest, prepared, and ready to check your own blind spots.​​

Pay Attention to the Quiet Details

So, keep an eye on the details. Listen for the moments when the process gets skipped or bias seeps in. Remember, the pillars of justice move about as fast as the turtles carved into them, but sometimes, that’s just slow enough to see where things are going wrong. And if you ever find yourself behind the bench, in a gold gown or otherwise, try to make the right call for the right reasons.

By the way, my classmate Laura went on to be the editor-in-chief of her law review, served in the New York District Attorney’s Office, and now works as in-house counsel at a powerhouse company. Life finds its own balance, even if high school verdicts miss the mark.

Stephanie S. Germani, Esq. practices landlord-tenant law and heard that when Justice Amy Conney Barrett visited San Diego in September she shared that turtles are carved beneath the enormous marble pillars of the Supreme Court as a reminder that justice is supposed to move slowly and deliberately. Sometimes, moving slow is what gives us time to catch mistakes before they become disasters.