Chambers Ready: What Every Clerk and Intern Should Know (Presented by the Federal Bar Association Judiciary Division and its Federal Judicial Law Clerk Committee)

Hon. Michael J. Newman, United States District Judge | Southern District of Ohio

Hon. Michael J. Newman is a United States District Judge in the Southern District of Ohio’s Dayton seat of court. He was appointed in 2020. He previously served as a United States Magistrate Judge, a position to which he was appointed in 2011, and reappointed in 2019 to a second eight-year term. Following law school, Judge Newman was a law clerk on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Newman graduated with honors from the Washington College of Law at American University and attended the Advanced Mediation Program at Harvard Law School. Prior to taking the bench, he was a partner at Dinsmore & Shohl in Cincinnati, where he chaired the firm’s Labor & Employment Appellate Practice Group. While in private practice, he was named a Leading Lawyer, an Ohio Super Lawyer, and one of the Best Lawyers in America in Labor & Employment Law.

Judge Newman’s bar service is extensive; he was the first Magistrate Judge in the United States to be appointed national president of the Federal Bar Association. He has also served as president of the Dayton Bar Association and the Federal Bar Association Foundation. His Civics and Service to Others initiative as FBA president resulted in thousands of young people from all across the country meeting with federal judges to learn about civics and the Third Branch of government. This civics work continues; Judge Newman was named the FBA’s first Judicial Ambassador for Civics Education, and he has been invited to speak on the topic of civics education by the Federal Judicial Center. He now co-chairs the Sixth Circuit’s Civics and Outreach Committee with Judge Curtis Collier, and chairs the Southern District of Ohio’s Civics Committee.

Hon. Talesha Saint-Marc, U.S. Magistrate Judge | District of New Hampshire

The Honorable Talesha L. Saint-Marc is a United States Magistrate Judge in the District of New Hampshire and the first black person ever to sit on the federal bench in New Hampshire. A lifelong New Hampshire resident, Judge Saint-Marc completed her undergraduate studies at Franklin Pierce College, summa cum laude, and received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in 2009. Upon graduation, Judge Saint-Marc served as a law clerk in the New Hampshire Superior Court for two years, followed by one year in the New Hampshire Supreme Court. She then went on to specialize in labor and employment law with Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, P.A. providing strategic advice to businesses regarding all aspects of state and federal workplace laws.

Judge Saint-Marc was recognized in Chambers USA for Labor & Employment Law and was named a Super Lawyers Rising Star each year between 2018 to 2022, and a Super Lawyer in 2023. She was also named to the New Hampshire Union Leader’s 40 Under Forty class in 2019, and in 2021, she was listed among New Hampshire’s 200 most influential business leaders by the New Hampshire Business Review. Judge Saint-Marc has been an active and engaged member of the New Hampshire Bar Association. Additionally, she previously served on the Board of Directors for the New Hampshire Women’s Bar Association. Her community service endeavors are numerous and varied, including serving on the Board of Directors for New Hampshire Legal Assistance, Vice President of the Rivier University Board of Trustees, President of the Board of Directors for the Circle Program, and a former volunteer for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Nashua.

Ben Allums, Assistant Professor of Law | Loyola University’s New Orleans College of Law

Ben Allums is an assistant professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law where he teaches courses in maritime law and civil procedure. Ben earned his juris doctor from Tulane University Law School in 2007, where he served as the Senior Associate Editor of the Tulane Law Review, graduated Order of the Coif, and received the Charles Kohlmeyer, Jr. Award as the top graduate in maritime law. After law school, Ben clerked for three different judges at three different courts: Hon. Pascal F. Calogero, Jr. of the Louisiana Supreme Court (2007-2008), Hon. Carl J. Barbier of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (2011-2021), and Hon. W. Eugene Davis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (2021-2022). Notably, Ben’s ten-year clerkship with Judge Barbier focused on the massive Deepwater Horizon multidistrict litigation. Ben has also practiced maritime law and commercial litigation for two law firms in New Orleans. In 2023, Ben joined Loyola’s law faculty as a full-time, tenure-track professor.

Anika R. Hardmon, Federal Career Judicial Law Clerk | Southern District of Florida

Anika Royster Hardmon serves in her 16th year as the Federal Career Judicial Law Clerk for the Honorable Donald L. Graham, Senior United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of Florida, in Miami Florida. In addition to her role as a Career Law Clerk, Anika is an Adjunct Professor at Florida International University College of Law and St. Thomas University, Benjamin L. Crump College of Law, in Miami, Florida.

Prior to joining Judge Graham’s chambers, Anika worked over four years as an Associate with the civil litigation law firm of Gary, Williams, Parenti, et al. in Stuart, Florida.

I. Judge Michael Newman Presentation | 12:00pm – 12:10pm

II. Judge Talesha Hardmon Presentation | 12:10pm – 12:20pm

III. Anika Hardmon Presentation | 12:20pm – 12:30pm

IV. Ben Allums Presentation | 12:30pm – 12:40pm

V. Discussion of Summer Resources/Preparation | 12:40pm – 12:50pm

VI. Q&A | 12:50pm – 1:00pm