What do you say when someone celebrates fifty years on the bench? Plenty in Judge Real’s case if you ask me, and since someone did, here’s my piece. Who am I? Well, I was the Judge’s 62nd law clerk: one of two during the 2005-06 term, and one of 82 now overall. A lot of those clerks feel the way about him that I do, so I’m delighted to help commem- orate this very special jubilee; it’s a deep and sentimental honor for me. The Judge hired me when I was 26 years old, and he made a big impres- sion on me from the beginning. For one thing, he seemed like the strongest 82 year old in the world. I remember we flew to Arizona once to sit by designation, and at the airport, I found myself scampering ten or fif- teen feet behind him because he was tearing along at a brisk pace with all of his luggage in tow. It was the gait of a man who knew where he was going. A lot of folks have marveled at his vitality over the years, and the Judge will often attribute it to his gardening, but I’m not sure you’d grasp what he means by that if you haven’t seen some of the gardening he’s done. Here’s a story for you. A few years ago, I went to visit him at home, and when I got there, he was all by him- self; no Mrs. Real, no family. He asked me to give him a hand with something, so we headed back to- ward the garden, and I saw that he was already in the middle of some heavy-duty project. Before I knew it, he brought over a ladder and power saw, and he said we were going to clear out some tree branches and foliage. That sounded good to me in the abstract, but then I found myself at the foot of a very tall ladder, staring up at my 86-year-old former boss, who hap- (Continued on page 11) Celebrating 50 Years on the Federal Bench: Judge Real’s 62nd Law Clerk Shares Tales of a Central District Legend By Mani Dabiri* “I found myself at the foot of a very tall ladder, staring up at my 86-year-old former boss, who happened to be a federal judge . . .” Page 10 FBA/OC