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Lawyer Pay

Longtime Federal Judge Says Money Motivated Move to Pepper Hamilton

Posted Oct 7, 2008, 10:34 am CST
By Martha Neil

A longtime federal judge in Pennsylvania says he is returning to practice because of the significant difference between judicial and law firm pay.

James Giles has left his job as a senior U.S. district judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to return to practice at Pepper Hamilton, where he was a partner before he was appointed to the bench in 1979. He is now counsel at the Philadelphia-based law firm, where he plans to focus his practice on arbitration and mediation matters, reports the Legal Intelligencer.

Giles, who was chief judge of the Eastern District from 1999 to 2006, said "financial reasons" motivated his move, and he would have stayed on the bench had Congress passed a "meaningful" judicial pay raise. Federal district judges currently made just under $170,000 annually—about what a first-year associate attorney is paid at some of the country's biggest and best-known law firms.

Related coverage:

ABAJournal.com: "Judicial Conference Cost-Cutting Focuses on Pay, Court-Sharing"

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