Patsy Brumfield wrote an excellent article about retiring U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerry Davis that ran in Saturday's Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. Here is a link to the article.
The article provides a biographical profile on Judge Davis. Regarding his Magistrate position, the article states:
He describes the career he's about to leave as "the best job in the federal judiciary," so long as you're in north Mississippi.
By that, he means that magistrate judges here aren't treated like the "B Team" as may be the practice in some other districts. Here, they have broad powers and preside over all types of cases in tandem with a district judge.
"They want us to do as much as we can," he said of the district's judges, Mills, Sharion Aycock and W. Allen Pepper, along with senior judges, Neal Biggers and Glen Davidson.
The article correctly notes that Judge Davis built a reputation as an effective mediator.
It will be interesting to see if Judge Davis is pulled into service as a private mediator. Lawyers for both sides love mediators with a proven track record for getting cases resolved. I suspect that Judge Davis would be on many lawyers' short-list of mediators who they would agree to. I know for sure that he would be on my at least one lawyer's list.
Philip, thanks for the props on my Jerry Davis story. To answer your mediation question, Davis says no, he's completely "DONE" with lawyering. Whether that decision holds up across time, of course, is unclear. Whoever knows about any special circumstances that might change his mind. But he insists he's going to cook, do woodworking and write - well, have some fun - for the next while.