Judges Swap Skiing for Zoom Pet Shows to Build Clerk Bonds (1)

In normal times, Timothy Tymkovich, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, treats his clerks like an extended family. They sit around his chambers kicking around cases and, outside of court, go out for dinner or ski together.

These days, Tymkovich has to be more careful due to the Covid-19 pandemic, taking precautions in his chambers and not requiring clerks to come in every day. In-person mentoring and cross-chamber interactions are much harder for now, and Tymkovich worries that his newest clerks are “going to be missing some of that X factor that other ...