Legal scholars say Gertner is known as meticulous jurist
Preparation, rulings lauded
US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner leafed through the sheets of her prepared judgment yesterday and in a stern and steady voice blasted the FBI's mishandling of evidence that could have prevented four men from being sent to prison for a total of 109 years.
Gertner called the government's defense absurd and said that FBI agents coddled a witness they knew had committed perjury. "The defendant started this fire. . . . The fire was to burn for many years," she told the courtroom.
Appointed to the federal bench in 1993 by President Clinton, whom she met while at Yale Law School, Gertner has gained a reputation in the legal community as a judge who doesn't raise her voice but uses rigorous rhetoric when she feels the need.
In September 2005, Gertner issued a scathing criticism of the federal jury system, saying it prevented minorities from being called for jury duty.
She is also known as a master at preparation.
"She's anything but a loose cannon," said David Yas, editor of the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. "She's thoughtful and meticulous, and is known for her incredibly detailed decisions."
Born in New York in 1946, Gertner considered becoming an actress, but decided on a career in law, said Harvey Silverglate, who hired her as a lawyer in the early 1970s at his Boston law firm after she worked as a clerk for the chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
After graduating from Barnard College, she earned a law degree in 1971 from Yale Law School.
"We were a small firm, and she could have gotten any job she wanted, but she came to work for our brand-new start-up," Silverglate said. "Now that I look back, it makes sense that she was attracted to us. At the time, we were doing work concerning the Vietnam War, representing people who resisted the draft, people who got arrested in antiwar and civil rights demonstrations. She couldn't do that kind of work at any law firm; she wanted to call her own shots."
Gertner's background is unusual for a federal judge, Silverglate said.
"The number of judges on the federal bench whose background is criminal defense and civil liberties, you could put in a telephone booth," he said.
As a lawyer, Gertner handled numerous cases dealing with allegations of corruption by FBI and DEA agents, Silverglate said.
"She developed a keen sense for agents who lied, cheated, were corrupt, and she developed a keen sense for honest agents," he said. "She's seen it all." 