Congratulations to Judge Wollman!

Commemorating 39 years on the federal bench

Judge Wollman and some former clerks gathering in 2022 (author photo)

Next week, the Honorable Roger Wollman assumes inactive senior status on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Although he has previously taken senior status to allow his seat to be filled by another appellate judge, this next step signifies his formal retirement from the federal judiciary.

In a forthcoming tribute to Judge Wollman, his career clerk Amy Softich notes that during his 39 years on the federal bench, Judge Wollman hired 106 law clerks. I was one of them. I continue to view my clerkship as one of the most formative experiences of my career.

In 2018, I had the honor of sharing remarks about Judge Wollman for his portrait ceremony during an en banc session of the Eighth Circuit. I began by recalling my initial interview for the clerkship, which took place in Washington:

I remember spending days before the interview pouring over his opinions, reviewing the Supreme Court’s docket and familiarizing myself with the federal sentencing guidelines. I put on my best suit and walked nervously into the interview. Turns out the only thing I had gotten right in my preparation was to wear a suit. Judge Wollman’s first question to me was what I knew about farm equipment, and then at some point we turned to trains.

Knowing exactly nothing about either farm equipment or trains, I figured I had blown my chances. But he hired me anyway.

In my time working for Judge Wollman, I saw him embody the three civic aspirations that I set out in my 2016 book, Confident Pluralism: tolerance, humility, and patience.

Tolerance requires the hard work of distinguishing people from their ideas. Healthy institutions like our courts depend on tolerating differences charitably and humanely. Judge Wollman modeled that exceptionally well. He sometimes agreed to disagree with his colleagues, but he never spoke poorly of anyone, and he always conveyed a deep and genuine respect for his fellow judges and for the lawyers who appeared before him. He always took care to remind his clerks of the humanity of the litigants whose cases came before us.

I witnessed Judge Wollman’s humility through his sense of self and sense of humor. As Amy Softich observes in her forthcoming tribute:

Although Judge Wollman took his work very seriously, he has never taken himself too seriously. His self-deprecating sense of humor sometimes lightened the mood during tense oral arguments. He once lightheartedly told counsel that he was “still smarting in a way” from a Supreme Court opinion that had overruled one of his abstention decisions. And he would laugh as he asked us clerks whether “the beauty and clarity” of his edits brought a tear to our eye.

Judge Wollman downplayed his own accomplishments and looked for opportunities to praise others, respecting the office that he held but not thinking too highly of himself.

Finally, I saw Judge Wollman’s patience throughout my clerkship. I would frequently bring to him my frustrations over various matters, and he would calmly and kindly talk me through them. He was perhaps uniquely patient with me, in entertaining (and then denying) my various requests to institute casual Fridays, to work at a coffee shop instead of in the office, and to work on a law review article during a slow afternoon.

Law professor Jeff Powell has argued that judges are not superheroes but instead are called to reflect a modest and restrained temperament:

Judging is, or ought to be, characterized by logic and intellectual coherence. To do the job properly, the judge has to be capable of thinking, clearly and calmly, about the questions that he or she must address, even or rather especially when those questions involve matters about which people (including the judge) feel passionately.

This kind of judging is only made possible by a life shaped by tolerance, humility, and patience. You can’t just snap your fingers and become the kind of judge who thinks clearly and calmly on the bench—you have to practice it in the rest of your life. Judge Wollman has practiced this kind of engagement throughout his life. It was an honor to work for him, and I know I join many others in congratulating him on the occasion of his retirement.