THE ROBING ROOM

The quintessential example of a jurist with a pure heart, but an empty head. Judge Schofield comes off as an amicable and respectful individual, but her rulings and general awareness of what is happening on her docket are atrocious. For example, if she sets an agenda for a conference, she will forget to address the major points, such as the state of pending motions, outstanding discovery disputes, or critical factual issues. It does not seem, moreover, that she has a grasp of the law and appears more than eager to let her clerks do all the heavy lifting. She gets things flat out wrong; and not, to be clear, the minor things on which people can disagree, but big things, like well-settled, controlling precedent. Letter motions and other requests can linger before her for months at a time, not because she is considering them, but because she has simply overlooked the fact that things requiring her attention have been filed. She is easily confused and even more easily distracted, and often forgets the substance of her own orders and rulings. Overall, the impression is that she does not want to put in the work, and seems to have no awareness that her apathy and oversights are costing the parties a lot of money. Her primary concern seems to be to keep the cases moving, regardless of the direction. She is relatively new on the bench, and has had no prior judicial experience - which is actually troubling. District Judges are entrusted with great responsibility. Quite frankly, she is not up for the task. At first I thought she was picking sides, but it seems quite clear that she is, more likely, simply incompetent. I'm sure she'd be fine as a do-nothing partner in a law firm (which she was prior to her appointment) but, as Judge, she is completely lost and ineffectual.