There are many things to take from clerking for a judge. An appreciation for the law. Notes. The prestige that comes with maintaining the rule of law. What you shouldn’t be taking it as is an opportunity to allegedly commit embezzlement. A Michigan judge realized that they kept their enemies a little too close once they looked at their financial statements. From the ABA Journal:
A former court clerk in Wayne County, Michigan, has been charged with embezzling more than $60,000 from the judge for whom he worked.
Steven Allen, 42, of Detroit was accused of illegally obtaining the judge’s ATM card to make withdrawals and purchases, according to a Jan. 23 press release by the Michigan Department of Attorney General.
Look, times are hard. Even Biglaw associates are picking up side gigs to meet their monetary goals. But the answer to financial troubles is not to run a judge’s pockets — judges facing housing trouble is how we get Clarence Thomases. And judges with missing income is how we get Clarence Thomases. Considering that he’s one of the judges who voted against the Supremacy Clause and the Supreme Court is near a historically low approval rating, we really don’t need another one of those.
‘Even Judges Are Not Immune To Theft,’ State AG Says In Announcing Charges Against Former Court Clerk [ABA Journal]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
