Work

I started working on Tuesday. I was already familiar with some of the building and some of the people at the court because I had visited to the court a couple times last week. Two of the previous clerks, Todd and Meghan, are still here and will be around for the next two weeks. The other two clerks of my group, LB and Christy, arrived just before I did. The court counsel offices are in the law library at the court and there are three for the court counsels and one for a visiting judge. LB is already in her office and Christy is in the visiting office until Meghan leaves. I'll be moving into Todd's office when he leaves, but for now I'm in a temporary office on the second floor. It's a little quiet off by myself, but I'll be moving soon.

When I arrived, CJ's assistant took me to my office and left me to fend myself. When I began at the Fourth Circuit, I was told what to do at the beginning and had supervisors to help me figure out what to do. Here, the court counsels pass knowledge to their successor and I had Todd and LB tell me the procedures to handling cases. It was a bit of a crash course, but there is enough institutional knowledge here that I have gotten a good impression of what I'll be doing on a day to day basis. Todd then took me around and I met the remaining judges and I got a chance to sit down and talk to them for a little while. Judge Miller is the only American, the rest are Palauan.

The majority of my work will be appellate case work, just like I did with the Fourth Circuit. I get a case file, review it and then prepare a bench memorandum and a proposed opinion. Some of my cases will receive a hearing, so I have to get my work to the three judge panel in time to set a hearing or issue the opinion. Outside of appellate work, each of the court counsels has an additional task. LB is the scheduling clerk and handles administrative work like preparing an appellate hearing schedule and putting together the case reporter. I am the land court clerk and if the land court need any research or help, I am assigned to provide them assistance. Christy is the motions clerk and handles any incoming or short term motions.

The computers are older and I do not have an internet connection in my office. There is one computer elsewhere in the library that does have dial-up, but it is intended for westlaw research. There is a intranet among the office computers, so we can share our work and I can look back on past counsel's work. However, searching those files is not as easy as my previous job. Just like many things in Palau, research will be slower that it was back home.