U.S. District Judge Kelley will resign, work for D.C. law firm

NORFOLK

U.S. District Judge Walter D. Kelley Jr. announced Monday that he will resign from the bench and return to private practice.

Kelley's impending departure has been an open secret in legal circles. Employees in the federal courthouse on Granby Street have been talking about it for weeks.

"After much consideration, I have reluctantly concluded that my professional interests and the needs of my family are best met in the private sector," Kelley wrote in a letter to President Bush, which he sent Monday by overnight delivery.

The letter says Kelley has accepted a job with the international law firm Jones Day and will work out of its Washington office. His resignation is effective May 16, the letter states.

He told the president his service as a judge "has been the greatest honor of my professional career."

Kelley, who was appointed four years ago, acknowledged that leaving the bench is an unusual move. He said he would explain his decision fully in an interview with The Virginian-Pilot today.

Before taking the job, the Norfolk native was a longtime Republican operative, having served as chairman of Norfolk's GOP from 1997 to 2000. He was a partner in the Troutman Sanders law firm, specializing in antitrust and intellectual property cases.

Federal district judges are appointed for life and typically stay on the job well past retirement age. Of 45 current vacancies in federal district and appeals courts across the country, four are due to resignations, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

"It's unusual, but it's been happening increasingly, partly because the federal judges have not had a significant pay raise in a long time," said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.

The Administrative Office says on its Web site that in the 1970s, 22 federal judges departed from the bench. That number rose to 55 in the 1990s and this decade there have been 48 resignations so far. The office expects 68 departures by 2010.

Federal district judges earn $165,200 annually, about $20,000 less than a senior attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission and about $265,000 less than the dean of a top law school.

A bill pending in Congress would raise salaries of federal district judges to $218,000, with similar raises for judges on appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill earlier this month.

The Norfolk federal court has four full-time federal judges and two senior judges who hear civil matters and criminal cases brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office. Senior judges generally work part time, hearing as many cases as they wish.

Tobias said the Eastern District of Virginia, which also includes courts in Richmond, Alexandria and Newport News, already has two district judge vacancies. Portsmouth attorney Mark S. Davis is a nominee to fill one of those positions.

The professor said that having that many vacancies will put a lot of pressure on the other judges to keep up with the district's "rocket docket" reputation. The courts in Virginia's Eastern District are known to move cases faster than most other courts in the country.

Republican Sen. John Warner, who along with his counterpart, Democrat Jim Webb, will make the nomination to replace Kelley, issued a statement calling on Congress to adjust judicial salaries to avoid losing more jurists like Kelley.

"Judge Kelley is an extraordinarily well-qualified federal jurist," Warner said in the statement. "In my view, Congress needs to readjust the salaries of federal jurists, a matter presently before this body, and one that I strongly support."

Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com