Bench Beset by Record Resignations, Cash a Factor
Federal judges are resigning in record numbers, often lured by higher paying jobs in the private sector.
Federal trial-level judges make $165,200 a year, about $5,000 more than new lawyers at New York’s big law firms and 50 percent less than senior law professors, USA Today reports.
Since 2000, 51 federal judges have resigned or retired, 22 of them since January 2005. The exodus is a recent phenomenon. From 1958 to 1969 only three judges left.
The latest to resign: Paul Cassell, who will become a law professor at the University of Utah and a litigator for a crime victims group, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports. It quoted his resignation letter to President Bush:
“I would be less than completely candid if I did not mention the uncertainty surrounding judicial pay as a factor in my decision,” he wrote. “With three talented children approaching college years, it has been difficult for my wife and me to make financial plans. As you know, this year federal judges have yet to receive even a cost of living pay increase.”
The pay lag is a problem for state judges as well, USA Today reports in a separate story. States often tie judicial pay hikes to those of lawmakers, who fear voters will retaliate if they give themselves a raise.
In New York, judicial pay is ranked 48th among the states, when cost of living is considered. Judges there are seeking a raise in a lawsuit.
