Judges thanking externs:

I just noticed that Judge Harold Baer, Jr., in the Southern District of New York has a practice of thanking interns who worked on his opinions, e.g., “Sonia Wadhwa, a Summer 2004 Intern in my Chambers and upcoming second year law student at The George Washington University Law School, provided substantial assistance in the research and drafting of this opinion.” (I assume that the reason he doesn’t thank his regular law clerks is that he figures being a law clerk — which, unlike an internship/externship during law school, is a paid post-law-school job and a great credential — is compensation enough.)

Seems nice, though it definitely runs against the dominant federal court tradition, which is that all the opinions are treated as the work of the judge, and the existence of law clerks and interns/externs (the latter two terms are generally synonymous) is studiously ignored.