Law clerk shortage in MA courts

The state judiciary has abandoned a controversial proposal to fill coveted law clerk jobs at no cost to the government with newly hired private lawyers whose firms have pushed back their start dates because of the recession. Robert A. Mulligan, chief justice for administration and management of the trial courts, scuttled the proposal after receiving a written opinion he had sought from the state Ethics Commission, according to Joan Kenney, a spokeswoman for the judiciary. Kenney said in an e-mail that the commission did not provide a “definitive ruling.’’ But after Mulligan received the letter, she said, he spoke to a few of the chief justices who head trial-court departments and shelved the plan. As a result, the seven trial-court departments across Massachusetts begin September with a considerably smaller-than-usual complement of law clerks, who help judges with legal research and drafting memoranda.

Link: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/01/proposal_to_let_law_firm_hires_help_state_courts_is_dropped/