Shira Scheindlin

Education

Pre-judicial career

Federal judicial service

Post-judicial career

Tenure on federal bench

Notable rulings

• In December 1997, New York magazine ran advertisements on 75 New York City buses along with a picture of Mayor Rudy Giuliani that said: "Possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn't taken credit for." Mayor Giuliani had a deputy call the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to complain that he had not given the magazine permission to use his name in its ad, and the ads were removed. The magazine sued the City, alleging that it was violating the magazine's First Amendment rights. The City's lawyers contended that the advertisements "irreparably harm' Mayor Giuliani's right to control how his name is used in advertising." Judge Scheindlin held that the ads were "clearly a hybrid of commercial speech and political satire." "Salting her opinion with mild sarcasm amid a methodical analysis of the constitutional protections afforded to commercial speech, the judge ordered the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to restore the advertisements immediately to the buses."
• In April 2002, in the case United States v. Osama Awadallah, after Awadallah testified before a grand jury that he had met with two of the September 11, 2001 hijackers, but could not remember their names, Scheindlin dismissed a perjury charge against him and found that Awadallah's prolonged detention without actual criminal charges was based on misrepresentations and omissions by the government and could not be justified under existing law. Her decision was reversed on appeal.
• In February 2004, in the case Maurice Clarett v. National Football League, Scheindlin, accepting the antitrust-law arguments raised by counsel, ruled that the NFL could not bar Clarett from participating in the 2004 NFL Draft. This decision was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the case was not heard by the Supreme Court.
• In April 2004, in the case Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, Scheindlin sanctioned UBS for not being able to complete their electronic discovery of potentially informative documents, and not complying with their litigation hold on the destruction of documents. This case has been seen as revolutionary in the legal realms of human resources and computer forensics, as the burden of proof was effectively shifted to the defendant for its inability to produce documents in a timely manner, and the presentation to the jury of an adverse inference.
• Judge Scheindlin presided over three trials of John Gotti Jr., each of which ended in a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury. The principal charge against Gotti in the trials was racketeering conspiracy stemming from Gotti's alleged management of the Gambino crime family following the incarceration and death of his father, John Gotti Sr.. "On September 20, 2005, a jury acquitted him of securities fraud and hung 11-1 for conviction on racketeering charges that included an assault on Curtis Sliwa. His re-trial on the remaining charges the following March also ended in a mistrial, with the jury hung 8-4 for acquittal. At the third trial involving the Sliwa assault, prosecutors convinced 12 jurors that Junior had ordered the kidnapping but failed to convince them that he had engaged in criminal activity after 1999 and the jury again deadlocked on the racketeering charges, this time voting 8-4 for conviction."
• In September 2006, Scheindlin ruled that Judith Clark, a Weather Underground radical serving 75 years to life for the murder of a Brinks guard and two police officers during a robbery, was entitled to a new trial because her Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated. Scheindlin found Clark's right to counsel was violated even though the then-self-proclaimed revolutionary insisted on representing herself at trial, turned down legal counsel, boycotted much of the trial, and refused to recognize the court's authority. In January 2008, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed Scheindlin's ruling and held that Clark was not denied her right to counsel because Clark "knowingly and intelligently exercised her constitutional right to make those choices."
• In January 2009, Judge Scheindlin ruled in SEC v Collins & Aikman, a case which addressed discovery obligations of the Government in civil litigation. The case opines that the government was obliged to search its own electronic data to produce responsive documents, submit materials allegedly covered by the deliberative process privilege to the Court for in camera review, and search its e-mail and attachments after cooperating with the plaintiff in the negotiation of an appropriate search protocol "designed to retrieve responsive information without incurring an unduly burdensome expense disproportionate to the size and needs of the case." Notably, Judge Scheindlin held in this case that the burden rested with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to provide to the defendant the compilation of documents that supported the allegations in the Complaint, rather than passing the burden to the defendant to come up with "appropriate" search terms, especially since "the inaccuracy of such searches is by now relatively well known." She concluded in this case that a government agency is subject to the "same discovery rules that govern private parties ", thus ordering the SEC to produce documents as requested by the plaintiff.
• On September 2, 2009, Judge Scheindlin ruled on whether credit rating agencies are protected by the First Amendment where the rating agencies have disseminated their ratings to a select group of investors rather than to the general public. "Judge Shira Scheindlin denied the rating agencies' motions to dismiss. Most significantly, Judge Scheindlin rejected the rating agencies' argument that their rating opinions were entitled to immunity under the First Amendment, and she also rejected their argument that their rating represented non-actionable opinion."
• In 2011, Judge Scheindlin presided over the trial and conviction of arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
• In August 2013, Judge Scheindlin ruled that the New York City stop-and-frisk program was being applied in an unconstitutional manner, ordered immediate changes to the program, and called for a monitor to supervise related reforms. The case was Floyd v. City of New York. In October 2013, the Second Circuit stayed Scheindlin's decision, and removed her from the case for violating the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. On November 13, 2013, in response to a Motion filed by Judge Scheindlin seeking reconsideration of her removal from the case on remand, the motion panel of the Second Circuit that issued the Order of removal declined to permit Scheindlin to dispute her removal, but issued an opinion purporting to disavow its previous conclusion that she had "run afoul" of the Code of Conduct. Rather, the panel stated, "e conclude only that, based on her conduct at the December 21, 2007 hearing and in giving the interviews to the news media in May 2013, Judge Scheindlin's appearance of impartiality may reasonably be questioned... and that 'reassignment is advisable to preserve the appearance of justice.'"
• In December 2013, in Morgan Stanley v. Skowron, 989 F. Supp. 2d 356, applying New York's faithless servant doctrine, she held that a hedge fund's employee engaging in insider trading in violation of his company's code of conduct, which also required him to report his misconduct, must repay his employer the full $31 million his employer paid him as compensation during his period of faithlessness. Judge Scheindlin called the insider trading the "ultimate abuse of a portfolio manager's position." The judge also wrote: ""In addition to exposing Morgan Stanley to government investigations and direct financial losses, Skowron's behavior damaged the firm's reputation, a valuable corporate asset."
• In March 2014, she presided over and dismissed charges against Devyani Khobragade, a consulate employee arrested in December 2013 and charged with lying to investigators on the visa application for her domestic employee, finding that India's action in making her a full diplomat after the crime but before indictment gave her diplomatic immunity. Her arrest had sparked tensions between the U.S. and India.

Awards

• PEN Oakland/Adelle Foley Award given by PEN Oakland
• The Stanley H. Fuld Award for Outstanding Contributions to Commercial Law and Litigation, New York State Bar Association
• Distinguished Jurist Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
• William Nelson Cromwell Award for unselfish service to the profession and the community from the New York County Lawyers Association
• Edward Weinfeld Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Administration of Justice, New York County Lawyers
• William J. Brennan Award, Criminal Law Section, New York State Bar Association
• Robert L. Haig Award for distinguished public service, Commercial & Federal Litigation Section, New York State Bar Association
• Special Achievement Award in appreciation and recognition of Sustained Superior Performance of Duty, U.S. Department of Justice

  Publications

• The Future of Litigation, N.Y.L.J., February 5, 2010
• One Day in September, N.Y.L.J., September 25, 2006.
• E-Discovery: The Newly Amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Moore's Federal Practice, 2006.
• Electronic Discovery Sanctions in the Twenty-First Century, 11 Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review 71 .
• With All Due Deference: Judicial Responsibility in a Time of Crisis, 32 Hofstra L. Rev. 795 .
• Mastering Rule 53: The Evolution and Impact of the New Federal Rule Governing Special Masters, 51 Federal Lawyer 34 .
• Revisions in Federal Rule 53 Provide New Options for Using Special Masters in Litigation, 76 Journal of the N.Y. State Bar Association 18 .
• Judge Jack V. Weinstein, Tort Litigation, and the Public Good: A Roundtable Discussion to Honor One of America's Great Trial Judges on the Occasion of his 80th Birthday, 12 J.L. & Pol'y 149 .
• Outside Counsel: Retaining, Destroying and Producing E-Data: Part 2, N.Y.L.J., May 9, 2002.
• Electronic Discovery in Federal Civil Litigation: Is Rule 34 Up to the Task?, 41 B.C.L. Rev. 327 .
• Secrecy and the Courts: The Judges' Perspective, 9 J.L. & Pol=y 169 .
• Foreword, A Corporate Counsel's Guide to Discovery in the Information Age, Washington Legal Foundation.
• Judges, Juries, and Sexual Harassment, 17 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 813 .
• A Year in the Life: Reflections of a New District Judge, N.Y.L.J., Nov. 20, 1995.
• The ADR Landscape, 496 PLI/Lit 437 .
• Legal/Business Advice Dichotomy, N.Y. L.J., Aug. 5, 1993.
• Guide to the Southern District of New York Civil Justice Expense and Delay Reduction Plan, 481 PLI/Lit 729.
• A Portrait of a Lady: The Woman Lawyer in the 1980s, 35 N.Y.L. Sch. L. Rev. 391 .
• Discovering the Discoverable: A Bird's Eye View of Discovery in a Complex Multidistrict Class Action Litigation, 52 Brooklyn L. Rev. 397.
• Venue in the Second Circuit, 43 Brooklyn L. Rev. 841 .
• Legal Services: Past and Present, 59 Cornell L. Rev. 960.

  Family and personal life