What can you learn as a temporary judge?

If the courtroom is your playing field, then playing all of the positions may help improve your courtroom performance.   I started my legal career many years ago as a legal secretary, then a law clerk, process server, attorney, mediator, and now occasionally, a temporary judge.  If you ever have an opportunity to serve as a temporary judge, take it.  Not only are you giving back to the community - and not just the legal community - but you are educating yourself about one of the players in your game.  The experience (in my case, small claims court) gives you some understanding of how judges have to determine credibility and make decisions that impact people's lives.  You may think that small claims would be a snap but some very tough questions frequently arise when the parties present their cases.

Sitting as a judge gives you some perspective as to how litigants act.  You can appreciate a presentation that is clear and concise.  You can also find yourself getting confused and lost when the presentation is muddled and disorganized.  Acting as a judge, even a temporary one, has given me some insight into how a judge or justice might view my presentation.  It is just one more piece of the puzzle that helps us "practice" our profession.

No matter who else might attend your oral argument, your real audience is the justices.  Neither your client nor your friends can impact the Court's decision.  As authors Scalia and Garner point out in their book, Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges, "In most courts, the modern oral argument would be more accurately described as a discussion led by the judges."  Your goal is to have a discussion with them about your case.  As in any discussion, you want to make sure that your points are organized and persuasively presented.  When you have the chance to observe this "discussion" from the viewpoint of the judicial bench, you quickly learn when a party's points are neither.  But you also learn to appreciate when they are both.

You might also be interested in reading a blog by another appellate law firm, Archer Norris, about when "The Teacher Becomes the Student."  The blogger was describing his experiences sitting as a "justice" for an appellate advocacy class, and what he learned from his students.  Of course, his story confirms the principle that one teaches for the purpose of learning.