A Message from the Chief Judge

The lawyers in the Staff Attorney's Office of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals conduct legal research and provide objective legal advice to the judges of the Court on immigration cases, substantive motions, emergency stay applications, and pro se appeals. These matters comprise a substantial portion of the Court's docket, and are consequential to litigants and the development of the law. In a given case, whether on a motion or fully briefed appeal, the assigned staff attorney drafts a single, neutral bench memo for a three-judge panel. Their work product thus ensures that the judges are, quite literally, on the same page.

By tradition, the Second Circuit has hired recent law graduates to serve as staff attorneys. Modeled on a clerkship, the post gives junior lawyers the opportunity to write for all of the Court's judges. The staff attorneys work on a wide range of civil, criminal, and agency cases, and become experts in, among other areas, federal appellate procedure and jurisdiction, habeas corpus, immigration, federal sentencing, and civil rights law. Many lawyers leave the Staff Attorney's Office for traditional clerkships; others go on to careers in government and private practice. Click here for more details on where recent staff attorneys have gone on to work after leaving the Staff Attorney's Office.

The judges of the Second Circuit appreciate the diligence and expertise of our staff attorneys, whose professional work is essential to the adjudicatory process of the Court.

Hon. Raymond J. Lohier, Chief Judge