THE ROBING ROOM

I just completed a three-week criminal trial in front of her. The government sure gets its value out of federal judges - and this one in particular. The jury worked from 9:30-5:30 nearly every day (sometimes beginning at 9:00 am) with limited breaks. Most days we stayed past seven dealing with trial issues. She rarely let the jury sit idly in the jury room and created a fast-paced trial with no downtime. She's stoic while on the bench and maintains a tight grip on the course of the trial. Substantively, she bent over backwards to be fair to both the government and to the defense (although the government griped about some of her rulings precluding introduction of certain evidence). Appellate counsel will be hard pressed to find one solitary issue with her trial rulings. She's helpful and understanding to the attorneys and never demeaning. She pays close attention to every bit of testimony and every scrap of evidence and, at times, I felt like she was a 13th juror sitting up there.