Menendez Judge Called Fair-Minded ‘Giant’ of New York Court

Manhattan federal Judge Sidney Stein, who’s presiding over the Justice Department’s case against Sen. Bob Menendez, has handled plenty of high-profile defendants, from an adviser involved in the Silk Road black marketplace to a Real Housewife.

Still, the former trial lawyer, who attorneys describe as fair-minded and reserved with a penchant for bow ties, has largely avoided public attention—and reporters—during nearly three decades on the bench.

“He doesn’t want to be a public figure, he wants to be a judge,” said Shira A. Scheindlin of Boies Schiller, a former judge for the Southern District of New York who joined the court the year before Stein did. “I don’t think he’s looking to become famous, be quoted. That’s not his demeanor.”

Stein, who took senior status in 2010, will soon be in the spotlight as he oversees the case of the three-term New Jersey Democratic lawmaker accused of taking bribes and conspiring to act as an agent for the Egyptian government. Stein isn’t likely to let the trial, slated to begin next May, become a circus, according to his former clerks.

Stein is a “pro at administering trials” who would keep any proceedings against Menendez “as normal as possible” despite the attention on the case, said Russell Capone, a partner in Cooley’s white collar defense practice who clerked for Stein in 2006 and later led the Southern District’s public corruption unit.

Amid the media glare surrounding the trial, Stein is not likely to draw any attention to himself.

“He’s not someone who makes statements from the bench that are designed to be quotable,” said Sean Hecker, a partner at Kaplan Hecker & Fink and former Stein clerk. “I just think it would be antithetical to how he sees his role as a judge.” 

‘Giant of the Court’

Stein is well-regarded within Manhattan’s legal community. His chambers have sent a number of clerks to the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District, and at least three of his former clerks have led the office’s Public Corruption Unit that’s been investigating Menendez. 

“Judge Stein is a giant of the court,” said Judge Arun Subramanian, who joined the Southern District this year, and served as a judicial extern for Stein during law school.

Attorneys, including those who have argued in his courtroom and clerked for him, said Stein doesn’t have a reputation for leaning for or against the government in criminal cases. 

“I think his reputation is very much as a down-the-middle fair judge who does not favor one side over another,” said Elisha Kobre of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, a former federal prosecutor who has had cases before Stein. 

Stein’s prior experience as a trial attorney shows through in how he handles litigation from the bench, several of the attorneys said.

“He’s someone who practiced regularly in the very court on which he now sits. And I think that’s part of what makes him an ideal federal trial judge,” said Alex Talel of Goodwin Procter, who clerked for Stein in 2016. 

Hecker, who has had cases before his former boss, said Stein allows lawyers to present their cases and doesn’t typically interrupt them during arguments. 

“The judge is widely recognized as a very calm, thoughtful presence on the bench,” Hecker said."He’s not someone who will cut people off.”

Stein is also “very protective of jurors’ time and the schedules,” said Susan J. Walsh, a partner at Vladeck, Raskin & Clark and criminal defense attorney who has had cases before Stein.

“He has few if any sidebars, and he moves the case along very quickly,” Walsh said.

Major Cases

Stein, 78, was born in Passaic, New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton University and taught briefly at a New York City junior high school before earning his law degree from Yale, according to his questionnaire submitted to the Senate ahead of his confirmation.

He worked for seven years as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison until 1981, when he started a boutique litigation firm, “with four friends,” as he put it in his Senate questionnaire. Mark Zauderer, one of his partners at the firm, said the firm was built on a handshake agreement “because we knew and trusted each other.” 

There, Stein said in his questionnaire, he handled a wide array of largely civil litigation, including cases involving antitrust, contract, securities, and mergers and acquisition issues. He also wrote a monthly column for the New York Law Journal, titled “New York Court of Appeals Roundup.” 

He was nominated for the Southern District in1995 by Bill Clinton, at the recommendation of then Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.). 

Though he came to the bench with minimal criminal law experience—just 10% of his caseload, he told the Senate—Stein has since overseen a number of complex fraud cases.

In July, Stein sentenced  a Canadian man who pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute narcotics to 20 years in prison, after prosecutors alleged he advised the creator of the Silk Road black marketplace.

He gave a 6.5 year prison sentence in January to reality television star Jen Shah, one of the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, after she pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with a telemarketing fraud scheme that targeted the elderly. 

He also handled a years-long case against former Ernst & Young executives accused of helping wealthy clients evade taxes.

Stein has also frequently sat by designation on federal appeals courts.

In 2014, while sitting on a Ninth Circuit panel, Stein dissented from the majority in a case involving whether claims against lender Fannie Mae belonged in federal or state court. 

Two years later, the Supreme Court largely agreed with Stein’s logic and reversed the appeals court in a unanimous ruling. 

“It’s unusual for the Supreme Court to adopt a dissent. It’s particularly unusual for a district judge to write a dissent, and then have the Supreme Court vindicate that dissent,” Talel said.

Stein also takes his role of sentencing criminal defendants seriously, said Silvia Serpe, a founding partner of Serpe LLC who clerked for Stein at the beginning of the judge’s tenure.

“Before he went out on the bench for a sentencing, you could just really sense his burden, the burden that he shoulders,” she said.

Making Time

Those who worked for the judge also emphasized Stein’s commitment to mentorship.

Capone said Stein “really did treat his clerks like family” and credited him with his own decision to pursue criminal law. 

The judge would typically hold a lunch in his chamber with his law clerks before a criminal sentencing. Without revealing his views on the matter, Stein would ensure his clerks had read up on the case and invite them to share their own views, Capone said. 

“My interest in this line of work certainly resulted from my clerkship. Part of that was how much he involved us in it,” Capone said.

Though his externship with Stein was only for a semester, Subramanian recalled the judge making time to show him his process of crafting an opinion and thinking through legal issues.

Twenty years later, after Subramanian was confirmed as a federal judge, Stein was one of the first people who called him.

“When thinking about the legacy of Judge Stein, it’s not just the big cases that he’s worked on or the big trials,” Subramanian said. “It’s the people that he’s influenced who are in the profession, or in law school.”