Federal Judges say salary insufficient

Why do the immunized elite on the bench complain about low pay? If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. We take this as an admission that lawyers are overpaid in private practice. The American public wants to know how lawyers take from the poor and send their kids to college. The illegal lawyers' monopoly is overdue for abolishment. Some fret that the low pay could cheapen the federal bench. Terry Kern enjoys being a federal judge, but he is not sure whether he would make the same jump from the private sector today. "It's a terrific job," said Kern, who has been on the bench since 1994. "But if I had it to do over, I would have to think long and hard about it." When a cost-of-living increase goes into effect Friday Feb. 1, Kern said, he will finally be making half of the $300,000 he made in his final year in private practice in Ardmore. The growing discrepancy between federal judges' salaries and what they could earn in the private sector could lead to a dearth in the number of top-notch attorneys who would even consider moving to the other side of the bench, many fear. Kern, the chief judge in the Northern District of Oklahoma, says he realizes that "it's difficult for the public to be too sympathetic to someone making $150,000. To the general public, that's a healthy salary and nothing to be whining about." But Kern says that -- relatively speaking -- the figure is small in a legal world where some recent graduates can make the same amount at a New York City firm. A report by the American Bar Association and Federal Bar Association says the current salaries of federal judges have become so inadequate "that they threaten to impair the quality of the judicial branch." The report pins blame on the linkage of judicial salaries to the salaries of members of Congress. This "causes federal judges to suffer the consequences of Congress' reluctance to award itself a pay increase or even to accept cost-of-living adjustments," the report said. The judges will get a $4,900 cost-of-living increase this year. The bar associations' report indicates that judges received only three of the eight possible COLA adjustments before that. Kern notes that sporadic attempts to rectify the situation in Congress "disappear and die" amid suspicions that the lawmakers like the link because it gives them someone to blame when they do vote for raises for themselves. "It's a political football," Kern said. "The reality is that it's easier for them this way." Federal judges filed a class-action lawsuit in 1997 regarding their concerns. The case is still being appealed. Chief Justice William Rehnquist has said the pay issue could lead to the judiciary's losing the perspective of lawyers who have spent their careers in the private sector. The judiciary may be forced to rely on attorneys who are already in public service jobs, such as career prosecutors or magistrates, he said. The Northern District's newest judges, Claire Eagan and James Payne, are former magistrates. However, both had lengthy careers in private practice earlier. Eagan said, "Absolutely, there are many well-qualified candidates who would make excellent judges who don't do this because of the salary." Becoming a judge was a lifelong dream of hers, she said, "but you have to want it so much in order to do it." Eagan has said she took "more than a 50 percent" pay cut when she left the private sector to draw a magistrate's salary, $133,000. Her healthy financial situation allowed her to make the sacrifice, but many of her colleagues who have financial obligations such as children's college tuitions may not be able to make the jump, she said. Kern, 57, has a child attending a private university whose tuition is about $35,000 a year. Although he could make much more in private practice, he said he was financially tied to the job until his retirement kicks in eight years from now. He then may seriously consider not staying on as a senior judge unless there is a considerable pay increase, he said. Some aren't even waiting until age 65 to walk away. The joint bar association report said 52 circuit or district judges left what could have been lifetime jobs during 1991-2000, compared with only five during 1961-70. The Oklahoma federal judges who resigned include Michael Burrage in 2001 and Layn Phillips in 1991. Both returned to private practice. Kern said the Northern District was fortunate to find high-quality applicants such as Eagan and Payne, but: "If the financial disparity becomes too great, it's illogical to think we'll continue to attract the best and the brightest." The magistrate job that Eagan vacated has attracted only 38 applicants, which Kern said was only about half of what he expected. The pay for a magistrate is 90 percent of a district judge's salary. "Becoming a judge will always require a sacrifice," he said. "But there's only so much of a sacrifice we should be asking. Asking someone to give up one-half or two-thirds of their salary is asking too much."