Robert T. Stewart, '14

Tell us a little about the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The Eastern District of California is big. It spans from the California-Oregon border all the way down to Bakersfield. Its main courthouse is in Sacramento, and it also has a large divisional courthouse in Fresno. It encompasses seven million people, fifty-five percent of California’s landmass, and nine national parks, including my new favorite, Yosemite — which actually includes a small federal courthouse and a fulltime federal magistrate judge who handles, for example, misdemeanor charges for BASE jumping from El Capitan. 

The Eastern District of California is also incredibly busy. Compared to other federal district judges, Eastern District judges carry the heaviest caseloads in the Ninth Circuit and one of the heaviest in the nation. For example, last year there were 834 weighted caseload filings per authorized judgeship in the Eastern District. To put that in context, there were 618 weighted filings in the Central District of California (Los Angeles) and 520 weighted filings in the District of Nevada. The national average was 507.    
 
What is one thing about being a federal judicial law clerk that you really enjoy?

Intimate exposure to trial court procedure and a huge body of law. In a given week, for example, my work can range from working on a trademark case to a pelvic mesh product liability case to a police officer excessive force case to an employee wage-and-hour case to a Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act case (I had to look it up, too) to a venue motion to a 12(b)(6) motion to a subject matter jurisdiction motion. And that’s just a small sampling of the civil side. So my days are never dull.
 
What is one of your mottos?

“Strikes and gutters,” courtesy of Jeff Lebowski. 
 
What’s one nugget of advice that you can share with the students at Boyd?

Make sure you know who Jeff Lebowski is.

What is one thing you miss and don’t miss about living in Las Vegas? 

I miss the great flight options based out of McCarran. What I do not miss is the wind, which, in Las Vegas, is to combed hair what Jackson Pollock is to blank canvas.     
 
Is there any advice you would give to a new attorney?

Learn how to write well, which includes not losing your reader’s attention, which is why I am ending my remarks here.