Judging The Judges: Who Are the Most-Cited New Jurists On The Federal Bench?

Which federal judges get the most attention from their bench-mates: the prodigies born in the ‘70s, or the late bloomers approaching their own seventies?

Which federal judges get the most attention from their bench-mates: the prodigies born in the ‘70s, or the late-bloomers approaching their own seventies?

More than 240 federal district judges have taken office in the past five years, and they range in age from 39 to 68 (Judge George Hazel and Judge Richard Jackson, respectively). We recently identified 7 Rising Star Judges from these newcomers that you might want to clerk for, but now we ask the question of why are particular judges cited more often by their peers? To find answers, we looked through thousands of data points provided by Ravel, and what we discovered may surprise you: it’s the young’uns who are stealing the spotlight.

The average age of top-cited judges appointed since 2010 is just 56, while the average age of all actively serving district judges is 60. So, if you’re an associate hoping for a meteoric career as a federal judge you’ve still got time, but you want to hit your stride quickly.

We also noticed some striking findings and similarities that go beyond mere age.

  • Four out of the five top judges are women, even though women account for less than one-third of actively serving district judges.
  • Nine out of the ten top judges served in the executive branch of government, including seven who worked at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Here are the top 10 most-influential district judges appointed in the past five years:

  1. Hon. Lucy Koh, N.D. Cal.
  2. Hon. Beryl A. Howell, D.D.C.
  3. Hon. Ellen Hollander, D. Md.
  4. Hon. Edward M. Chen, N.D. Cal.
  5. Hon. Jane Magnus-Stinson, S.D. Ind.
  6. Hon. James Boasberg, D.D.C.
  7. Hon. Richard Seeborg, N.D. Cal.
  8. Hon. Leslie Kobayashi, D. Haw.
  9. Hon. J. Paul Oetken, S.D.N.Y.
  10. Hon. Leonard Stark, D. Del.

Judge Koh, at 46 years young, is the most-cited district judge appointed in the past five years, and is ten years younger than the average of this group. Other young standouts are Judge Stark (age 45) and Judge Oetken (age 49).

Interesting in learning more? Try Ravel’s case law visualization platform (free for students), and learn about judge analytics driven by Big Data.

Earlier: 7 Rising Star Judges You Want To Clerk For


Kerry Kassam is a resourceful litigator and ruthless data scientist who thinks attorneys should hone their intuition with modern analytics. He is on Twitter: @QuantLaw