Insider’s Perspective: An Exclusive One-on-One with the Honorable Adam Conrad, Special Superior Court Judge for Complex Business Cases
The Elon Business Law Journal is proud to continue its interview series with the current presiding North Carolina Business Court Judges. We had the privilege of sitting down with Judge Adam Conrad on
October 3, 2017 to get his thoughts on several aspects of being a judge and the North Carolina Business Court in general.
Background
Judge Conrad is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of Georgia School of Law. Judge Conrad has focused on constitutional and intellectual property cases during his legal career. He also serves as a member of the Federal Bar Circuit Association.
Interviewee: Judge Adam Conrad, Special Superior Court Judge for Complex Business Cases
Interviewer: Timaura Barfield, Staff Editor for the Elon Business Law Journal, Elon University School of Law L’18
TB: You have been a judge for almost a year. What do you enjoy about being a judge?
AC: I enjoy working with my colleagues. I feel blessed to have wonderful colleagues. We have a collegial court—we talk to each other frequently, work together and send emails to each other often, and have frequent meetings throughout the year. It has been a real joy to be able to learn from and spend time with them. They all have a passion for this court and a dedication to making the court a premier business court in the country. Every single judge is dedicated and motivated toward that goal and I am thrilled to be a part of it.
TB: What is the most difficult part about being a judge?
AC: The hardest thing about being a judge is deciding difficult cases. We typically receive well-argued and well-crafted briefs from both sides, each of which is convinced in their right, and it can be very difficult factually and legally. We don’t receive cookie cutter cases. Every case, even if it presents an issue that we have seen before, has a unique spin on it. There is some nuance in the law or some difference in the fact pattern that makes it just different enough that every single one of these cases has a certain level of difficulty associated with it, but that is part of the fun. If these cases were easy, then this job wouldn’t be nearly as fun. We get to decide some very difficult and interesting issues, and it has been great.
TB: What best prepared you for becoming a judge?
AC: The best preparation for being a judge is, of course, your experience as an attorney. My experience as an attorney was a little bit different than the other members of the court, because I had a primarily appellate practice. For me, that was great experience because in my appellate practice I was able to see a wide number of cases and participate in a lot of cases at various levels, including at the trial stage for purposes of strategizing or handling dispositive motions or trial preservation, post-trial motions, and then all the way through on appeal. In my role in private practice, I really saw the life of a case from beginning to end often times, or at least I saw cases at various stages. I was able to learn about thinking through a case from the beginning and also seeing it at the very end when an appellate court was reviewing a stale record that had already been completed. That is pretty valuable to a judge, because we get cases that are brand new and part of our job is case management and making sure that cases move in the right direction, for the benefit of the parties and the public. We also have an eye toward moving the law forward and making sure that the law develops in an appropriate way. If it goes up on review to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court will understand what we did, why we did it, and that we built a record that they could review and decide the issue without needing anything further.
TB: You see a lot of lawyers in your courtroom. What is common among the most successful lawyers who appear before you?
AC: Three words: preparation, preparation, preparation! The best lawyers are the ones who know their cases cold, know the law, and can speak fluently about both. One thing you can count on when you are in the business court is that the judge will be prepared. All five of us will have read the briefs, the record, we will be familiar with the key cases, and will have questions about things that haven’t been raised directly in the briefs. During oral argument preparation, thinking through all the potential questions you will get from the bench is critical. We don’t need advocates to give us all of the background that we are already familiar with, because we are fully prepared for the case. What we need is someone who is ready to begin by focusing on the key arguments and points and will directly answer the questions we ask, because we ask questions to gain clarity. The best advocates that I have seen are the ones who are fully prepared on the record, are prepared to discuss the key cases, and who are willing to engage in a dialogue with the court regarding key issues.
TB: What advice would you give to a lawyer who wants to become a judge?
AC: That is pretty easy. If any lawyer has interest in becoming a judge, be the best lawyer that you can. Get the most experience that you can litigating cases. I don’t think that everyone has to come from the same background to become a judge. There a lot of different experiences that can prepare you for being a judge and give you a different perspective and I think the bench benefits from having people with different kinds of experiences. The one thing that is common across the board is that you need to have built the kind of experience and reputation that gives you credibility from day one when you step into this role and wear the robe. I would say that the opportunity to become a judge is one you can’t necessarily plan for, so to me the best thing you can do is do well at the job that you have and be the best attorney that you can. Get the most experience you can, and prepare yourself, so when the time does come you will be in a position to accept the job and become a public servant. It is a big change to go from private practice into public service and I think the best you can do is to focus on being a great attorney and put yourself in a position to be able to take on a different role when the opportunity comes.
TB: You were at King & Spalding, LLP prior to becoming a judge, and in private practice for almost 10 years. What did you most enjoy about private practice?
AC: For me, the thing I enjoyed most about my private practice experience was the type of issues that I handled. I had a practice that involved intellectual property cases and a fair number of patent cases. During my years at the firm, handling appellate issues, it was a tumultuous time for patent law. Patent law had gone through a lot of changes, both legislatively and because the U.S. Supreme Court had taken an interest in the area. We saw that as an opportunity to make some law and argue for cutting edge positions in various aspects of patent law. Our clients, who were often high-tech companies, were arguing for reform to bring patent law up to date with modern information. That was really exciting, to be able to work for companies who were on the cutting edge of technology. Also, it was exciting to be on the cutting edge of the law and be able to spend a lot of my time practicing before the premier patent law jurisdictions in the country. Whether it was before the trial state of the Eastern District of Texas or the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and often before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, arguing for various positions on behalf of our clients, it was a lot of fun to be able to deal with those very interesting technologies and to be able to try to come up with creative and novel legal positions on behalf of those companies.
TB: What was most difficult about transitioning from private practice to being a judge?
AC: The easiest is that I don’t have to record my time anymore. Being a public servant, the most difficult thing is that you have to develop a certain level of comfort in serving in the judicial role because in most of these cases, whether it is dealing with a motion or a case that goes to trial, there is a good chance that one party is going to win and one party is going to lose. It is a very different feeling to make those calls as a judge as opposed to being an advocate who has argued for a position. It is very different to be on this side of the bench and get use to handing down decisions when you know one side will be disappointed. But, it is an inherent part of the job to be able to develop that level of comfort and confidence in the decisions that you make that even though one side will be disappointed, you have done everything you can to be impartial and render the right decision under the law as you best understand it.
TB: What are the qualities of a great law clerk?
AC: There are a lot of qualities to a great law clerk. I think anybody would say that there are two things any law clerk needs to be able to do: research well and write well. I think that is a given. There are a couple of other things that really set good law clerks a part. One is the willingness to go the extra mile and to work hard. This is a job where we always have something to do. When we get one opinion out, we have another one in the pipeline ready to go. There is never a moment when one big case goes away and we find ourselves without something to do. That happens in private practice every now and then; a big case will go away and all of a sudden you find yourself waiting for another big case to come in. That doesn’t happen here. We are always moving forward. That is the nature of this court. We get motions which require us to move fairly quickly. Whether it is temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions or just other very important motions that the parties would like an answer to so that they can work toward settlement and remediation, we need to be able to quickly deliver clear and correct answers. In those circumstances, it really falls on the law clerk as the first line of defense to move quickly and put in the extra effort so that we can get an answer out to the parties. Another thing is the willingness to engage in discussion. One of the great benefits of having law clerks is being able to talk with people about difficult legal questions: What don’t we know? What didn’t the parties brief? When the parties raise the case, are they really putting the right spin on it? Having law clerks who express enthusiasm about the law by engaging in spirited discussions about it and what the right answer is, is crucial to our decisions making process.
TB: How do you choose law clerks?
AC: I am still pretty early on in this. So far the process of vetting law clerks is pretty standard. We post at 20-25 law schools, mostly on the east coast. We are continuing to look at new law schools to help spread the footprint of the business court and try to build relationships with law schools in other parts of the country. We look for things that federal district court judges look for, or certainly the other business court judges here in this state: solid academic background; evidence of the ability to research and write, whether that is through participation on a law journal or moot court; and something that shows not just the legal ability but a work ethic that goes with it. Class rank is a pretty good proxy for that, but the extracurriculars go a long way. Engaging in extracurricular activities shows a passion for the law, as well as a willingness to put in extra hours to be well-rounded. We look for all of those things, and of course, there is really no substitute for a good one-on-one interview with a student. The law clerks work closely together; with each other, as well as with the judge and the entire staff in the courthouse. Having a good personality fit is really critical when you are putting in long hours and working on difficult issues.
TB: Can you usually pick up on one’s personality with a one-on-one interview?
AC: I think so. Our interviews typically go 30-40 minutes. Certainly, they run a little longer when I interviewing somebody who is engaging, and in those cases, we are not always talking about the law, but also trying to figure out what makes somebody tick. I learned that from my own process of interviewing as a potential clerk right out of law school with Justice Thomas. When I interviewed with Justice Thomas, we spent quite a bit of time talking about college football and his passion for his bus, which is what he calls his RV. For me, I like to make sure that the clerk is going to be enjoyable to work with for the year or two that they are going to spend here. That is really important.
TB: Let’s switch gears a little and talk about what helps you maintain a work-life balance…..
What are your hobbies?
AC: It is kind of hard to have hobbies when you have two young daughters at home. I have a two-year old and a six-year old, and therefore, when I am not spending my time here at the court, I spend as much time as I possibly can with them. They are my whole world and we have so much fun together. We try to do as much as we can with the kids. We are season pass ticket holders to Carowinds and we try to get out and go thrill seeking. My six-year old is my roller coaster rider, so we just try to have fun with that. That is the way I spend most of my free time. If I ever get a few minutes when the kids are out of town or asleep, I try to fill it by catching up on some reading, whether it is civil war, WWII, or other history books. I also try to get outside and enjoy the North Carolina weather, which is perfect for jogging. That is how I spend my free time.
TB: What do you do to relax?
AC: Reading or jogging.