LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman critique’s the legal profession’s tendency toward risk-aversion and argues that it’s necessary to embrace disruptive change in order to implement wide-scale reforms.

Law students - regardless of their law school's ranking and financial resources - overwhelmingly lack transparent information about judicial clerkships.

As LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman explains in Above the Law, the clerkships whisper network is the backdoor, secretive, fear-infused method of partial information sharing, whereby clerks "whisper" about mistreatment because they are fearful. Law schools perpetuate this problematic whisper network through their incomplete information-sharing and overly positive, rather than realistic, clerkship messaging.

It’s time for everyone in the legal profession to acknowledge some uncomfortable truths, recognize their roles in perpetuating problematic behaviors, and commit to achieving solutions.

Aliza argues that the situation involving 96-year-old Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, who was recently suspended for one year following her refusal to participate meaningfully into a disability inquiry, illustrates the need for robust reforms. These include mandatory retirement ages or term limits; annual medical evaluations for all judges; and revisions to the Judicial Conduct & Disability Act and rules for Judicial Disability and Judicial Conduct Proceedings.

Aliza explains law clerks' limited options to address wrongful conduct in the federal judiciary - Employee Dispute Resolution (EDR) and the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act, as well as a third option that too many clerks are encouraged to choose - stay silent after experiencing mistreatment and hope the judge who mistreated you does not also attempt to derail your career.

I then suggest solutions to meaningfully address clerks’ concerns.

The public messaging around #MeToo should focus on the benefits to survivors of speaking out.

As we approach the sixth anniversary of the #MeToo Movement, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that it’s time for a #MeToo movement in the judiciary. As more law clerks are finally empowered to share their experiences, we’ll force desperately needed change in the courts, hold powerful people accountable for misconduct, and change the culture in the legal profession from one of silence, to one of candid dialogue around workplace conduct.

In Bloomberg Law, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that diversifying judicial clerks would lead to a more diverse judiciary. To make that happen, she says, we need a more transparent judicial clerkship hiring process.

Right now, judges are above the laws they enforce. There's a solution: the Judiciary Accountability Act must be passed.

In Above the Law, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that Title VII protections should be extended to federal judiciary employees. Law clerks who support the daily functioning of our courts deserve to be treated fairly and respectfully. No judge is above the law.

You can be a strong jurist and a poor manager.

But this is rarely a factor when judges are appointed for life, given enormous power, and tasked with running small, intimate, high-stress workplaces.

In Above the Law, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that the judiciary has done little to train judges as managers, despite the enormous influence judges exert over clerks’ careers.

In Bloomberg Law, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that fear of retaliation silences clerks, but legal employers can be part of the solution.

In Above the Law, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that the judiciary needs better mechanisms to remove judges who may no longer be fit to serve.

In Bloomberg Law, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that the clerkship system is broken—but there’s a fix. Every law school should make changes right now to increase transparency in the clerkship application process.

As law students enter another clerkship application cycle without transparent information about judges as managers and clerkship experiences, LAP President and Founder Aliza Shatzman critiques standard law school advice like “do your research” and “stick it out.” Aliza also offers advice for law students and law school advisors.

In Slate, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman discusses the case of 95-year-old Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, who Is suing to avoid a cognitive test.

In Above the Law, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that law students should ask the right questions before clerking.

LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman reviews “Law Clerk Selection and Diversity: Insights from Fifty Sitting Judges of the Federal Courts of Appeals” for Jotwell.

In the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) Member Bulletin, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that protecting law clerks from harassment is everyone's responsibility.

In the Administrative Law Review, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that the D.C. Courts are Article I federal courts, and they should be regulated under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act.

In the Harvard Journal on Legislation, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman makes the conservative case for the Judiciary Accountability Act.

In the ABA For Law Students Blog, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman shares advice for law clerks experiencing workplace mistreatment.

In the Yale Law & Policy Review, LAP’s President and Founder Aliza Shatzman argues that law schools are part of the problem — but they can (and should) be part of the solution.