Interpreting "not hiring judges"
I'm having problems trying to fully interpret info with respect to judges (I'm the OSCAR administrator at City University of New York School of Law). There seems to be some judges who are "not hiring" because they haven't yet gotten around to updating their information via oscar--e.g., compare the profile sheets for Judge Cogan and Amon in the Eastern District of NY. Cogan's profile clearly indicates the term 2009-10 that he is not hiring; by contrast, Amon (a "not hiring judge" as well) profile doesn't have any information on the term that she is not hiring. I called Amon's chambers and they tell me she is in fact hiring for 2009-10 (thereby bearing out my hypothesis) while Cogan confirmed that they are not hiring for 2009-10 but are hiring for 2010-11.
Please clarify as there are several students who have asked about this.
Not Hiring
We encourage judges to post their positions in the late spring, however, they are free to post positions at any time. The "Not Hiring" listing was created because many judges did not want to receive numerous calls from law schools or applicants inquiring about possible vacancies. We do not update "Not Hiring" listings or post positions on behalf of judges. If a judge has decided to hire but has not posted a position, we do not have any new information. The judge needs to log into the system and post a position. Judges are sent reminders from OSCAR in the spring letting them know that they should post a position if they intend to hire in the fall.
In reality, any judge that does not have a position is by definition not hiring, or at least not actively soliciting applications for a vacancy. This does not mean that a judge will not be hiring in the near future, but knowing that a judge is going to hire in the fall is little help if there is no position to apply to.