Andrew Allard ‘25
Staff Editor
Judge Daniel Bress ’05 returned to Charlottesville last Wednesday for an interview with Professor Aditya Bamzai organized by the Federalist Society at the University of Virginia School of Law. Judge Bress’s long list of accomplishments include serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Law Review, clerking for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, and, in 2019, becoming a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Continuing along this path of greatness, Judge Bress now accomplishes his crowning achievement, one which he may never even know for himself: a feature in the Virginia Law Weekly.
Judge Bress’s journey to these auspicious pages has indeed been a circuitous one. Originally from the far-off Garlic Capital of the World—Gilroy, California—he arrived on the East Coast in 1997, when he began his undergraduate education at Harvard. Arriving by a road oft traveled to this Law School, Judge Bress worked as a paralegal in D.C. before beginning as a 1L in Charlottesville in 2002. As he puts it, “I didn’t have great plans for anything; things sort of just unfolded.”
Pictured: Professor Bamzai and Judge Bress.
Credit: Andrew Allard '25.
Indeed, Judge Bress’s story reveals the gravity Charlottesville seems to exert on the legal world. After graduating, Judge Bress remained in Charlottesville for another year to clerk for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the Fourth Circuit. In 2006, he began clerking for Justice Scalia, where he met Professor Aditya Bamzai, when the latter was interviewing for a clerkship position. Judge Bress also later returned to Charlottesville on several occasions to teach as an adjunct professor at the Law School.
So, the interview at times felt more like a reunion between two friends. Judge Bress and Professor Bamzai offered stories and praise for the late Justice. Professor Bamzai recalled a time when he, along with three other clerks, convinced Justice Scalia to change his position on a case, though not before the Justice remarked, “I should never have hired all four of you.” Judge Bress, concurring on the important work of clerks, offered an insightful statement on the Justice’s legendary stature: “There was this mystique that he knew all the answers, and that wasn’t true.” Judge Bress nonetheless praised Justice Scalia’s “monumental contribution to law,” particularly in statutory interpretation and his insight into separation of powers. Fondly reminiscing on his time as a clerk, Judge Bress humorously remarked, “If I hadn’t clerked for [Justice Scalia], I’d probably have no friends.”
Turning to his own appointment to the federal bench in 2019, Judge Bress spoke on the challenges and rewards of the position. If you are like me, then you are undoubtedly interested in knowing what the Ninth Circuit tea is. Thankfully, Judge Bress poured us a hot cup—in the reserved and respectful way that one would expect from a federal judge. Unsurprisingly, Judge Bress emphasized the difficulties of the sheer size of the Ninth Circuit, estimating that its immigration docket alone is bigger than the First and Tenth Circuits combined. With such a large docket comes a large and varied group of judges. Said Judge Bress, “We have different personalities, different views of the law.” The judge lamented that a lack of collegiality in the Ninth Circuit—and in the country—is an obstacle to the proper functioning of the judiciary. “There’s a general divisiveness in America right now that we would do best to try to tone down. . . . It’s important to stick to your principles, but some of the conversations get shriller than they need to be.” Judge Bress expressed his hope that returning to in-person work would improve collegiality and restore public confidence in the judiciary.
For those readers that look to the twenty-nine-judge court that is more circus than circuit and think, “Yeah, I could do that,” you are in luck. Judge Bress kindly offered his reflections and advice based on his time as a law student. “You have to constantly challenge yourself. . . . The classes that scare you are typically the ones you should take,” he said, naming Tax Law as an example. For students that received the short end of this semester’s course lottery, this should hopefully come as a good sign that you are destined for greatness—maybe even a clerkship with Judge Bress himself. It is for this reason, as the judge tells it, that he encourages his clerks to work on the cases that they find to be the “gnarliest.”
For the 1Ls fed up with negligence, promissory estoppel, personal jurisdiction, or whatever your doctrinal demon is, Judge Bress had the following wisdom: “There are certain staple classes that, in hindsight, make more sense. . . . Torts, contracts, [and] corporations are foundational elements of American law, particularly for a generalist.” There it is. The kick in the pants you needed to get back to outlining. And while I’m reminding you of the things you want to forget, Judge Bress also had some legal writing advice: Focus on your transitions. “Every one of them is an opportunity to lose somebody, or confuse somebody, or anger somebody.”
That may sound like a lot of pressure. Hell, I spent hours on this article, and that was the best transition I could come up with. But I’ll close with a final bit of wisdom from Judge Bress, a reminder to us all that it is okay to not have all the answers. Speaking about the challenges of transitioning to his judgeship, Judge Bress said, “Unlike in private practice, I can’t call [Professor Bamzai] and ask, ‘What do you think of this?’ I have to ask someone who is twenty-five years old and just graduated law school. So, what could go wrong?” As a twenty-five-year-old myself, what indeed?
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tya2us@virginia.edu