“I don’t love trials,” Judge Shira Scheindlin said recently. “They are not a good way to tell a story. They are not efficient. And they are often so tedious—you saw that today.” Scheindlin was sitting at a conference table in her chambers in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan building, off Foley Square, in lower Manhattan, after a long day of presiding in Floyd v. City of New York, which is the latest legal challenge to the stop-and-frisk practices of the New York Police Department. “What I really like to do is write opinions,” the Judge said. “There you get to do what you think is right, what you believe in. You’re pushing the margins of the envelope, being willing to be creative.”
It was after seven o’clock in the evening, and the courthouse was nearly empty. At sixty-six, Scheindlin is renowned for her work ethic and her demands on her staff. Her clerks work from 9 A.M. until 8 P.M. every weekday. They can get lunch at the courthouse cafeteria but must eat it in chambers. They are also expected to work six hours over the weekend. (They can choose which day.)
In her office, Scheindlin was relaxed and expansive, especially when she talked about her two children, a son who is a violist with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra and a daughter who is a political consultant and pollster in Israel. (Her husband, Dr. Stanley Friedman, is an associate dean at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center.) On the bench, though, she is unflaggingly rigorous. She listens to testimony, reads the transcript on her computer in real time, e-mails her clerks, and sips endless cups of Diet Coke. Lawyers who appear before her often describe her as opinionated and brusque. (“I’ve heard enough.” “Move along.” “I’ve ruled, counsel.”) . . .
