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Judging Former Judges Who Call Themselves Judge, Part III

By Ashby Jones

It was a question that perplexed the first Law Blog writer, Peter Lattman: To what degree is it proper for judges, after they’ve stepped down from the bench, to continue going by honorifics such as “The Honorable” or “Judge”?

Peter first asked about it in 2006 in regard to Herb Stern, former lawyer for Joe Nacchio, who still went by “Judge” some 20 years after leaving the federal bench. Later that year, he reprised the issue in regard to John Martin, a former federal judge who stepped down from the bench in 2003 to practice law at Debevoise.

We thought we’d dust off the issue once again on Friday in light of an interesting WSJ opinion piece written by Leah Ward Sears, the former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, who left the bench last year to enter private practice, at Schiff Hardin in Atlanta.

Writes Sears:

I recently stepped down from the Supreme Court after 17 years to re-enter private practice, and many people are confused about how to address me. To be honest, I’m very fond of my first name. And perhaps if everything was right in the world, calling me Leah would be just fine. But I tend to ask people to call me Chief Justice Sears or Justice Sears because it’s the same courtesy they automatically afford a retired male jurist, particularly down South. For instance, it was always “Judge Bell,” even long after the U.S. attorney and former judge retired, never “Griffin.” When I retired many people were suddenly confused. Why?

LBers, what do you think? The issue is complicated by the fact that Sears is a highly successful African-American woman who, as she writes, has endured throughout the course of her career countless episodes of racism (either intended or not). She seems to relish reminding people who mistake her, say, for a bathroom attendant, that she is actually Justice Leah Ward Sears.

The questions: First, is the practice of calling oneself “Judge” or “Justice” after stepping down from the bench unseemly? Second, is it different in regard for Sears?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 02, 2010 (boomark / email).