Last week, the deadline for applications to be received by the Judicial Nominating Commission passed with only four applications being submitted. Who knew you actually had to “apply” for the job? Hell, if I knew that, I might have applied, despite being pretty ill-qualified for the post. According to Jeff Mordock at Delaware Law Weekly, the four candidates are Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Berger, Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden, Court of Chancery Chancellor Leo Strine Jr. and Superior Court President Judge James Vaughn Jr.
The next step in the process is that Commission will review the names and submit a list of three names out of those four to Governor Markell, who will make the final selection. The nominee would then have to be confirmed by the State Senate in January.
Who is the favorite?
Strine is viewed as an early favorite because of his impeccable corporate law background. He was appointed Chancery Court chancellor in 2011 after serving as a vice chancellor for 13 years. He also serves as the special judicial consultant to the American Bar Association’s corporate laws committee. Strine was a corporate litigator at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and was counsel to former Gov. Thomas R. Carper.
Gov. Jack Markell is also said to be favorable to Jurden because of the diversity she would bring to the court as both a female and open lesbian. Berger also has a strong corporate law background, having served on the Chancery Court from 1984 until her appointment to the Supreme Court in 1994. She also served as an associate at Skadden Arps and a deputy attorney general for the Delaware Department of Justice.
More on the favorites from the News Journal:
Strine is considered the odds-on favorite by many[.] [He] is universally considered to have a brilliant legal mind[.] “He has such a commanding sense of the law. It’s hard to read his opinions and not be impressed,” Hamermesh said. “They’re gorgeous opinions.”
The criticism against Strine is that he has attracted unwanted negative attention to Delaware’s revered court with brash and, at times, outrageous comments from the bench. [..] [I]n the past year, he’s got some unwanted national attention over his courtroom ruminations involving a business dispute between high-end clothing designer Tory Burch and her husband, T. Christopher Burch. Strine likened the case to “a drunken WASP fest” in a proceeding and he asked lawyers if the Burches are white Anglo-Saxon Protestants.[..]
When Chief Justice Myron Steele announced last month that he would retire on Nov. 30, the legal and political community began speculating about who would be the best pick.
“For the corporate world, it’s one of the most important appointments the governor will make – and some might say ‘the most’ important appointment,” said Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.
The chief justice is the face of the state’s courts, which are considered the cornerstone of the corporate franchise. As an ambassador for the state, the top judge represents Delaware at corporate conferences, legal association events and university symposia. “It’s definitely a diplomatic position,” said Lawrence Hamermesh, a professor of corporate and business law at Widener University School of Law.
The selection will come down to who will best “articulate our position in a convincing manner,” Elson said. Judicial demeanor and legal expertise are expected to be top qualifications for the job. More than one person in Delaware described the ideal candidate as coming from “central casting.” […]
That “outrageous” comment from the bench makes me like Strine more, not less, but this is the blue blood legal and corporate world we are talking about here, and we cannot have WASPs being made fun of ever! So I have a feeling that it will not be Strine. It will be either Jurden or Berger.