Chief Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Chief Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

A phased reopening of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York would feature the continued use of remote hearings and significant "physical changes" to implement social-distancing measures at its Lower Manhattan courthouse, Chief Judge Colleen McMahon told the Law Journal on Tuesday.

McMahon, who spoke from her chambers via Skype for Business, said there was still no date set for restoring in-person court operations, and any reopening would be "very gradual," relying partly on input from public health experts and the court's own outside scientific consultant.

She also said jury trials in the building were "not imminent."

Court staff would return to the building first in smaller numbers than usual and at a staggered schedule. On any given day, McMahon said, about half of the court's staff would be present at the Foley Square facility.

McMahon said that jury trials were still a ways off, though other types of public proceedings could resume in the interim. However, attorneys can expect to encounter a courthouse much changed from the days prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It will look different," she said.

For instance, McMahon said, the court plans to have a guard posted at the doors to take temperatures and ask screening questions of those looking to gain entry. There would also be decals on the floor indicating safe distances at which visitors will be allowed to stand.

The court was also reconfiguring its largest courtrooms in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse and the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse just across Pearl Street. There would be fewer attorneys permitted in the well, and the gallery would be "clearly marked" to indicate where people would be allowed to sit.

The court, McMahon said, would likely continue call-in access to live proceedings and was considering expanded use of overflow rooms. All participants would be required to wear masks, and podiums would be disinfected in between speakers.

When jury trials finally do resume, jurors would be seated in expanded jury boxes, with physical partitions and video for those who are forced to sit farther away from witnesses. The court would need to call greater numbers of potential jurors with at least a four-week lead time, McMahon said.

Even then, McMahon said, she expected that much of the court's work to be done remotely, as it has throughout the public health crisis.

"There will be fewer lawyers flying in from all over the country. We've learned a lot through this process," she said. "I do expect a lot more remote work to be done."

With the Southern District facing a growing backlog of criminal proceedings, McMahon said she was also encouraging judges to consider conducting bench trials in civil cases.

McMahon, who has served as chief judge since 2016, said she takes issue with the term "reopening" because, while the court was forced in March to close its doors to the public, urgent criminal matters, such as arraignments, bail applications and reviews, have proceeded. Judges have continued to manage their dockets remotely using teleconference and video calls, and McMahon noted, they had published more than 11,900 orders between March 16 and April 30.

A team led by District Executive Edward Friedland had been vital to developing and implementing new protocols to guide the reopening process, including a forthcoming set of rules that would be posted soon to the Southern District's website.

"They have not stopped, and they have done an amazing job," McMahon said. "It's really been a team effort."

McMahon said she was aware of warnings from experts that there could be a new spike COVID-19 cases this fall and was factoring that possibility into her reopening plans. If the Southern District were to resume jury trials too soon, she said, it ran the risk of ending up in the "same position" as it found itself in March.

"It's going to be a week-by-week evaluation, reevaluation," she said. "There's just no way to predict."

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