Oregon Legal Research Blog
Justice Bedsworth in his July 2010 Criminal Waste of Space column, in the OC Lawyer Magazine, tells a couple of his favorite judicial clerks stories. New lawyers, especially, should pay attention:
The Power and the Glory, by Justice William W. Bedsworth, July 2010
Excerpt: “…I don’t know, there may be some 9-armed, 6-eyed, 3-brained creatures on Arcturus 7 who can handle a clerk’s duties better than Dwayne, but certainly nobody on this planet could touch him.
He pretty much picked me up and carried me(2) through my career as a trial judge. I spent my first few months on the bench puffing myself up and pronouncing my pronouncements in my most stentorian judicial tones, only to glance over at Dwayne and catch just the hint of a headshake, just the most minuscule, almost undetectable signal I had screwed up.
At that point, I would clear my throat, announce that some last minute consideration or previously undiscerned nuance had just occurred to me, and declare that I was going to hold onto the case until I had a chance to resolve the problem. Then, at recess, Dwayne would come into my chambers and explain to me that I had failed to rammelfratz the feeblevetzer or enunciate the Gazorninplat Warning or some such thing, and I would go back out onto the bench and finish the job….” (Link to full article in the OC Lawyer Magazine.)