For about a year now, ever since he took a mysterious leave of absence in August 2007, we've been following the troubles of Judge Samuel B. Kent (S.D. Tex.). A suspension from the Fifth Circuit, allegations of breastfeeding and BJ requests -- it hasn't been pretty.

Yesterday things got even worse for Judge Kent. From the Houston Chronicle:

U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent was indicted Thursday on charges of abusive sexual contact and attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a female employee, making him the first federal judge to be charged with federal sex crimes and the first in Texas indicted in recent history.

Congratulations, Your Honor? It's a privilege to be FIRST.

The alleged victim -- Judge Kent's former case manager, Cathy McBroom -- issued a statement after the indictment came down:

"After a very difficult 17 months, I feel like I have finally been validated. I have listened and read with horror as Judge Kent's lawyer suggested that what happened to me was 'enthusiastically consensual,' " wrote McBroom, who remains a federal court employee. "I am relieved to find that even federal judges are not above the law, and that sexual abuse in the workplace is never acceptable, no matter the status of the offender."

Thanks for the shout-out, Cathy!

A little bit more, below the fold.

[Ed. note: This post is by FROLIC & DETOUR, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the "reality blogging" competition that will determine ATL's next editor. It is marked with Frolic & Detour's avatar (at right).]

Many thanks to those who wrote in about their creepy, sadistic, and otherwise entertaining legal bosses.

Our first nominee, Judge Suzanne B. Conlon, earned her place in bossal history by firing a clerk for complying with an evacuation order on Sep. 11, 2001.

Read about her competition, courtesy of some long-suffering ATL readers, after the jump.

[Ed. note: This post is by FROLIC & DETOUR, one of the finalists in ATL Idol, the "reality blogging" competition that will determine ATL's next editor. It is marked with Frolic & Detour's avatar (at right).]

Demanding bosses come with the territory in our line of work. Several less-than-loving legal employers have been profiled here on ATL, and you've shared some fine examples of bossal abuse. But until today, we've never undertaken a search for the worst boss in the legal profession.

This week, we want to find the ultimate briefcase-hurling, insult-spewing master of the legal boss's art. ATL will get the ball rolling by offering the first nominee:

Senior Judge Suzanne B. Conlon, a living legend of the Northern District of Illinois, is a true judicial diva. She even fired a staff member who refused to carry the judge's lunch up 17 flights of stairs on a day when the elevators weren't working. But those in the know tell us that Judge Conlon didn't reach the pinnacle of her achievements in bossery until September 11, 2001.

Judge Conlon is famous for her punctuality and for her ruthless enforcement of deadlines. So when federal marshals evacuated the Dirksen courthouse that sunny morning, she stayed put in her chambers. One clerk began to make made preparations to leave, per the instructions of the guys with guns. Judge Conlon decreed [paraphrasing]: "It is a TUESDAY, you are here till SIX, and if you leave, don't come back."

So he left and didn't come back.

Can you top this, readers? We bet you can. Tell us why your boss (or former boss) deserves the Worst Legal Boss honor at frolicndetour.atl.idol@gmail.com or in the comments. We'll select the most outstanding candidates and post the full list of nominees on Thursday.

Congratulations to Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. (E.D. La.), our latest Judge of the Day. As a two-time winner (he was previously honored in here), Judge Porteous now joins the JotD Hall of Fame. Along with his fellow inductees -- Chief Judge Edward Nottingham, and Judges Samuel Kent and Elizabeth Halverson -- he is no longer eligible for recognition as a Judge of the Day, having transcended the award.

Here's why Judge Porteous is a Hall of Famer. From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

A panel of the nation's highest judiciary found substantial evidence that U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous committed perjury, accepted gifts from lawyers and violated other criminal and ethical standards, according to its impeachment recommendation sent to Congress.

The U.S. Judicial Conference, led by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, decided unanimously Wednesday to forward the misconduct investigation to the U.S. House of Representatives. The action could set the stage for the first Senate impeachment trial of a federal judge in 19 years.

When judges discipline themselves, they tend to go easy. If the Judicial Conference has unanimously voted to turn a matter over to Congress, you know it stinks to high heaven.

More discussion, after the jump.

The controversy surrounding Chief Judge Alex Kozinski is rapidly dissipating -- and with good reason. He has recused himself from the Ira Isaacs obscenity trial, and he's called for an investigation of any potential misconduct on his part. So, to quote his website, "Ain't nothin' here. Y'all best be movin' on, compadre."

We've read tons of Kozinski coverage (so you don't have to). Here are three of the most important posts:

1. The wife of Chief Judge Kozinski has come to his defense, over at Patterico's Pontifications:

My name is Marcy Tiffany. I have been married to Alex Kozinski for over thirty years and we have raised three sons together..... [T]he LA Times story, authored by Scott Glover, is riddled with half-truths, gross mischaracterizations and outright lies. One significant mischaracterization is that Alex was maintaining some kind of "website" to which he posted pornographic material.

Obviously, Glover's use of the word "website" was intended to convey a false image of a carefully designed and maintained graphical interface, with text, pictures, sound and hyperlinks, such as businesses maintain or that individuals can set up on Facebook, rather than a bunch of random files located in one of many folders stored on our family's file server. The "server" is actually just another home computer that sits next to my desk in our home office, and that we use to store files, perform back-ups, and route the Internet to the family network. It has no graphical interface, but if you know the precise location of a file, you can access it either from one of the home computers or remotely.

Using the term "website" also gives the impression that Alex was actively aware of all of the material, when, in fact, it had accumulated over a number of years and he didn't even remember that some of that stuff had been stored there or whether it had been put there by him or one of our sons, who also have access to the server.

That's just an excerpt; read the whole thing over here.

2. Professor Eugene Volokh, a former clerk to Chief Judge Kozinski, offers his thoughts over at the Volokh Conspiracy. Money quote:

Kozinski has a quirky sense of humor, and keeps some joke pictures and videos on his computer rather than throwing them away. I'm sure they aren't the kinds of things some people would enjoy seeing. But he wasn't trying to show them to those people! He was just minding his own business, keeping some files on his own private server. And now it's a national news story.

Enough already.

3. Professor Volokh's post concludes by quoting the analysis of Professor Lawrence Lessig, another leading legal academic and cyberlaw guru. Professor Lessig writes:

When it comes to government invasions of our privacy, we are (and rightly) a privacy obsessed people. We need to extend some of that obsession to the increasingly common violations by private people against other private people. There is nothing for Chief Judge Kozinski to defend because he has violated no law, and we live in a free society (or so he thought when he immigrated from Romania). A free society should feed the right to be left alone, including the right not to have to defend publicly private choices and taste, by learning not to feed the privacy trolls.

That's just the tail end of a long and thoughtful post. Read it in full by clicking here.

Alex Kozinski's Wife Speaks Out [Patterico's Pontifications via Volokh Conspiracy (Jonathan Adler)]
Alex Kozinski [Volokh Conspiracy (Eugene Volokh)]
The Kozinski mess [Lessig Blog (Larry Lessig)]

We've been following the controversy around Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit after the discovery of sexually explicit material on his personal website. Our posts are collected here.

Given the firestorm of coverage in the last few days, this latest news may not be surprising:

A federal appeals court judge today recused himself from a closely-watched obscenity trial in Los Angeles, three days after acknowledging that he had posted sexually explicit material on a publicly accessible personal website.

"In light of the public controversy surrounding my involvement in this case, I have concluded that there is a manifest necessity to declare a mistrial," said Alex Kozinski, chief judge for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. "I will recuse myself from further participation in the case and will ask the chief judge of the district court to reassign it to another judge."

Yesterday, Kozinski called for an investigation of himself. He continues to handle this with dignity, or as much dignity as one can when there's talk of cow porn.

Judge Alex Kozinski recuses himself from obscenity trial [Los Angeles Times]

Earlier: Coverage of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski (scroll down)

Apologies for the downtime. We were off being interviewed by CNN Headline News about the controversy surrounding Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit. We'll post a link to the interview if and when it becomes available.

Speaking of Chief Judge Kozinski, here's the latest news:

The 9th Circuit judge, who posted sexually explicit material on his own site, according to a Los Angeles Times story yesterday, has just released this statement:

I have asked the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit to take steps pursuant to Rule 26, of the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct and Disability, and to initiate proceedings concerning the article that appeared in yesterday's Los Angeles Times. I will cooperate fully in any investigation.

Is it unusual for a judge to call for an investigation of himself? Sure. But it's a testament to Chief Judge Kozinski's integrity and forthrightness; he's not trying to hide anything underneath his robe. This is a smart move, a lesson in good crisis management.

Kozinski Calls for Investigation of Himself [WSJ Law Blog]
Judge wants panel to investigate his porn postings [Associated Press]

Too... much.... information. Yes, we're talking about the controversy over Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit, who's presiding over the Ira Isaacs obscenity trial in Los Angeles, and who uploaded some materials to a shared family website that contained some sexual images (among many other things).

This controversy is "TMI" in more ways than one. There has been such a torrent of news and legal blog coverage that we're still getting up to speed. We'll have more detailed thoughts later. Our extensive past coverage appears here, here, and here.

In the meantime, here's an open thread for discussion, plus some material to keep you occupied: (1) an extensive collection of links related to this matter, to both mainstream media sources and blogs, as well as selected material obtained from Chief Judge Kozinski's site; and (2) a pair of reader polls (one from yesterday, still open, and one new, prompted by comments like this one).

NEWS COVERAGE
Judge suspends L.A. obscenity trial after conceding his website had sexual images [Los Angeles Times]
Porn Stash Puts Obscenity Case Judge in Awkward Spot [New York Sun]
Chief Judge Contributed to Racy Web Site [New York Times]
Report: Smut-case judge posted explicit images [AP]
Judge Assailed Over Sexually Explicit Images on Web Site [Washington Post]
Obscenity Trial Suspended After Report That Judge Posted Sexual Images [WSJ Law Blog]

BLOGOSPHERE COVERAGE
The L.A. Times's Tipster on Kozinski's Porn: Cyrus Sanai [Patterico's Pontifications]
More on Cyrus Sanai's Campaign Against Judge Kozinski [Patterico's Pontifications]
The L.A. Times's Tipster [How Appealing (Howard Bashman)]
The Kozinski Circus [Convictions / Slate (Emily Bazelon)]
Should Litigants in Obscenity Case Before Judge Kozinski Moo-ve for a Mistrial? [Legal Blog Watch (Carolyn Elefant)]
Judges Gone Wild [Concurring Opinions (Kaimipono Wanger)]
News judgments about Kozinski's porn [LawBeat (Mark Obbie) via How Appealing]

COLLECTED MATERIALS FROM CHIEF JUDGE KOZINSKI'S WEBSITE
[Warning: NSFW]
What "Stuff" was on Judge Kozinski's Personal Website? [Celebrity Justice / USLaw.com]
Exclusive: Kozinski's Porn -- Images from Judge Alex Kozinski's Web Site [Patterico's Pontifications]
[Warning: NSFW]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski (scroll down)

UPDATE: Judge Kozinski has suspended the trial for 48 hours, to allow the prosecution to explore "a potential conflict of interest concerning the court having a... sexually explicit website with similar material to what is on trial here." [Los Angeles Times; New York Sun; New York Times; AP]

Congratulations to Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is currently presiding over a high-profile obscenity trial in Los Angeles. In addition, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, for some time he "has maintained his own publicly accessible website featuring sexually explicit photos and videos." Accordingly, he is our Judge of the Day.

A number of you emailed us about this Los Angeles Times article, which contains some colorful details about the materials that were available on Chief Judge Kozinski's website until recently (it's now under lockdown). We previously linked to and discussed the L.A. Times story here. Please note that when we refer to material "after the jump" or "below the fold," you need to click on the little "Continue reading" link to read the rest of the post. Sometimes we save the juiciest material for after the jump.

In any event, we reached out to Chief Judge Kozinski for comment. He sent us the following email:

David: I can't comment on the trial.

As for the other matter, the server was maintained by my son, Yale, for the entire family. Pictures, documents, music, audio and other items of personal and family interest are stored there so various family members can reach them from wherever they happen to be. Everyone in the family stores stuff there, and I had no idea what some of the stuff is or was -- I was surprised that it was there. I assumed I must have put it there by accident, but when the story broke, Yale called and said he's pretty sure he uploaded a bunch of it. I had no idea, but that sounds right, because I sure don't remember putting some of that stuff there.

I consider the server a private storage device, not meant for public access. I'd have been more careful about its contents if I had known that others could access it.

Should Chief Judge Kozinski recuse himself from the Ira Isaacs trial as a result of his website coming to light? Thus far, ATL readers vote no, by a 60-40 margin. The poll is still open; you can access it by clicking here, then scrolling down.

We'll continue to monitor the situation and bring you news of any developments as they occur.

Earlier: An L.A. Jury + Hours of Hard-Core Fetish Porn + Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, Presiding = Total Awesomeness

One of our favorite members of the federal judiciary -- the brilliant and hilarious Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit -- is in the headlines once again. Interestingly enough, it's not for any appellate decision, but for a trial he's presiding over (sitting by designation as a district judge).

And it's no ordinary trial. From a tipster:

The Hon. Alex Kozinski, the (still-reigning?) #1 Superhottie of the Federal Judiciary, will be presiding over a trial -- yes, you read that right -- in an obscenity case involving a fetishist named Ira Isaacs.

More details, from the Los Angeles Times:

Ira Isaacs says his films, which feature bestiality and defecation, have artistic value. Federal prosecutors say they are criminally obscene. Hours of footage will help jurors decide who's right.

Fun stuff. This is one jury that won't need Sudoku to stay awake.

In an article on Monday, the Los Angeles Times reported:

[Chief Judge Kozinski's] involvement in the case may be a stroke of luck for Isaacs. That is because Kozinski is seen as a staunch defender of free speech. When he learned that there were filters banning pornography and other materials from computers in the appeals court's Pasadena offices, he led a successful effort to have the filters removed.

Perhaps even luckier than expected? Learn why, after the jump.

There was some ambiguity about the professional fate of Robert Somma, the Boston-based bankruptcy judge who was arrested for drunk driving while wearing a black cocktail dress, fishnet stockings, and high heels. At first he said he was resigning. But after a groundswell of support, Judge Somma reconsidered his resignation.

We were hoping for his return. Sadly, it looks like that won't be happening. From the Boston Globe:

US Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Somma, who resigned after his arrest on a drunken driving charge in February and then tried to rescind his resignation, will not be coming back, federal court officials said this afternoon.

"The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and Judge Robert Somma have agreed that he will not resume service on the United States Bankruptcy Court for Massachusetts but is leaving to pursue other endeavors," the Office of the Circuit Executive said in a one-paragraph statement.

We wonder: Was Judge Somma strong-armed into staying away from the bench, by those killjoys on the First Circuit? Stay tuned. Somma's lawyer, Robert Carpenter, told the Globe that "we may have our own statement to come out next week."

As for those "other endeavors," we're curious. Will he become a widely acclaimed drag performer? Or move to Florida and become a television judge? Or maybe combine the two, and become America's first cross-dressing TV judge?

P.S. We're all in favor of drag performance. In fact, we've been described as "the blogging equivalent of a very talented drag queen" -- one of our favorite compliments ever.

After drunken driving arrest, bankruptcy judge agrees to leave [Boston Globe]
Somma: On the Bench or Off? [Legal Blog Watch]

Procrastination is a terrible habit, and the internet is truly the great enabler. How many hours of productivity are lost to YouTube each year?

Judging from Law Firm March Madness traffic, lawyers are definitely among the office workers looking for distraction. Slate has gathered "procrastination rituals" from various professionals. One of the contributors is Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit. His ritual is not to procrastinate:

Procrastination is very unhealthy. It causes problems for the people who are counting on you to complete things in a timely fashion and it makes your own life more difficult.... It helps to be a little compulsive. Then you feel uncomfortable if something is hanging over you -- that's the opposite of procrastination, a compulsion to complete things and get rid of the albatross hanging over you.... I have that compulsion.

And that's why he's Richard Posner: circuit judge, law professor, author of almost forty (40) books, prolific blogger, and one of the world's top 100 public intellectuals. And he even manages to sleep, about six hours a night on average.

"Don't procrastinate." Like so much good advice, it's hard to follow. But we'll try. Just after we're done reading this article about a scientific formula for procrastinating, searching the videos that come up on YouTube when you search "procrastinate", listening to the Posner-Lat podcast, and playing our turn in Scrabulous...

Procrasti-Nation [Slate.com]

Here is a Tale of Two Judges: the Honorable Alex Kozinski, the relatively new chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; and the Honorable Elizabeth Halverson, district judge in Clark County, Nevada.

Both are judges in the western United States. Both are colorful figures and well-known judicial mavericks. And both have been in the news lately. Chief Judge Kozinski graces the cover of California Lawyer magazine, which describes him -- and rightfully so -- as "brilliant, charming, and provocative." Meanwhile, Judge Halverson has been all over the national media in the past few days, thanks to this less-than-favorable AP report (picked up by many news outlets).

In light of these similarities, we decided to conduct a head-to-head comparison of the two jurists. Check it out, below the fold.

Pity the poor partners of McDermott Will & Emery. Sure, their firm is highly regarded and highly profitable. But when they head off to try cases in far-off places, they often get benchslapped silly.

You may recall the case of bankruptcy partner William Smith, who found himself in the deep-fat fryer after telling a judge she was "a few French Fries short of a Happy Meal." Although the judge was upset, in the end Smith got a slap on the wrist.

Things didn't end as happily for Terrence McMahon and Vera Elson, MWE partners based in Silicon Valley. Judge Richard P. Matsch -- the tough, well-regarded trial judge who presided over the Oklahoma City bombing case -- sanctioned McMahon and Elson for "cavalier and abusive" misconduct and a "what can I get away with?" attitude during trial. From the Denver Post:

A federal judge recently got so infuriated by the conduct of two highly regarded trial attorneys that he overturned a jury's $51 million verdict, then ordered the lawyers to pay the fees and costs of the opposing lawyers, a sum that could total several million dollars.

Ouch. So is that coming out of their partnership draws?

Or maybe the firm will find other ways to cut costs. Read more, after the jump.

Update: Please note that this post has been corrected since it was first published. The correction appears after the jump.

Or at least his robes. A quick update on a recent Judge of the Day, from Robert Ambrogi over at Legal Blog Watch:

By all accounts, Robert Somma had been a top-notch U.S. bankruptcy judge since his appointment to the bench in 2004 and a top-notch bankruptcy practitioner for many years before that. The sense of many in the Boston area is that the 63-year-old's retirement Friday from his $158,000-a-year bench seat is a tragedy....

A footnote to this story is that a legal-blogger may have contributed to the judge's decision to resign.

No, not us! By the time we got to the story, it had been all over the news. Also, for the record, we fully support transvestism.

More after the jump.

Greetings from the great -- but frigid -- city of Chicago. We're hanging out with friends and doing some sightseeing, but the main reason for our visit is this event, taking place on Thursday (and open to the public):

Judges As Public Figures
Thursday, February 21, 2008, 4:15 PM
University of Chicago Law School, Room II

Judge Richard Posner
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

David Lat
Above the Law
Underneath Their Robes

Professor Lior Strahilevitz
University of Chicago Law School

While in Chi-town, we will also be meeting readers at an ATL "Happy Hour," similar to the event we held in Miami last year. It will take place on Wednesday, February 20, sometime after work (time and place to be determined).

Update: The Chicago "Happy Hour" will take place on Wednesday, February 20, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at Miller's Pub (134 S. Wabash). Hope to see you there!

Schedule of Events [University of Chicago Law School Federalist Society]

There are reasons to read the New Hampshire Union Leader even after primary season is over. Check out this great article:

A Boston-based federal judge wore a black cocktail dress, fish-net stockings and high heels when police arrested him for drunk driving after he rear-ended a pickup truck last week, sources said.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Somma, 63, struck a plea deal with the city Wednesday in which he pleaded no contest to a first-offense misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charge in Manchester District Court. In exchange, the judge agreed to pay $600 in fines and penalties and a 12-month license suspension....

The arresting officer made no mention of the judge's attire in the written report police provided to the media other than to note the judge "had a difficult time locating his license in his purse."

Two sources confirmed Somma was wearing a cocktail dress, women's hose and high heels when his Mercedes-Benz E320 sedan struck a pickup truck stopped at a red light on Elm Street about 11:29 p.m. on Feb. 6.

Whatever floats your boat, Your Honor. Judge not lest ye be judged.

Arrested judge wore dress, women's hosiery [New Hampshire Union Leader]

We bring you an addendum to Monday's post about the latest in Supreme Court clerk hiring. And we're pleasantly surprised to see that we have this news before Wikipedia.

Recently hired to clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer in October Term 2008: Brianne Gorod, currently in the D.C. office of O'Melveny & Myers. Gorod is a 2005 Yale Law grad and a former clerk to the judicial tag team of Jed S. Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) and Robert A. Katzmann (2d Cir.).

Those who obsessively follows SCOTUS clerk hiring know that Judges Rakoff and Katzmann have jointly sent clerks to the Court before. But contrary to some rumors, they're not always a "package deal" when it comes to hiring (although there is a significant degree of overlap among their current and former clerks).

Judge Katzmann prefers to hire individuals who have clerked on the district court (or have some other kind of post-law school work experience), so he regularly turns to Judge Rakoff, for whom he has a great deal of respect, as a source of clerkly talent. Judge Katzmann sometimes also helps promising applicants to his own chambers to secure interviews with Judge Rakoff. Conversely, Judge Rakoff also refers and sends clerks to Judge Katzmann, as well as to other Second Circuit judges, and he has also hired some clerks after Second Circuit clerkships. In short, both judges think it's valuable for people to have both district and circuit clerkship experiences, and they try to help make that happen for their clerks. But they don't hire 100 percent of their clerks jointly.

The current tally of OT 2008 SCOTUS clerks, with Brianne Gorod added, appears after the jump.

Any trial judge with the Gall to benchslap the Supreme Court has a serious set of cojones.

Accordingly, Judge Richard Kopf (D. Neb.) -- who sent beer to Professor Doug Berman, as recently noted -- is our Judge of the Day. See links collected below.

We agree with Tony Mauro: Judge Kopf's irreverent "top 10" list of lessons learned from the high court's sentencing jurisprudence is "a provocative jaw-dropper that may get Kopf scratched off the holiday card list at the Supreme Court."

Judge Kopf's "Top Ten" take on SCOTUS sentencing work [Sentencing Law and Policy]
The Top Ten Things I Learned from Apprendi, Blakely, Booker, Rita, Kimbrough, and Gall (PDF) [Sentencing Law and Policy]
Federal Judge's 'Top 10' List Takes On Supreme Court's Sentencing Decisions [Legal Times]
Richard G. Kopf bio [Federal Judicial Center]

* Calling all cougars -- and the young studs who love them. If you're a single female who earns more than $500,000 a year (e.g., a Biglaw partner), you should check out this event. [DealBreaker]

* Canadian lawyers are horndogs, too. [Legal Blog Watch]

* "Though I did not think Judge Kopf owed me anything, I was not about to refuse a beer from a federal judge." [Sentencing Law & Policy]

* Hillary Clinton as Tracy Flick? [Slate TV via Althouse]

* Survivor winner Yul Kwon, with whom we went to law school, contemplates a congressional run. Go Yul! [Washington Examiner]