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E. Barrett Prettyman Court House in Washington, D.C. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM.[/caption] Federal courts will remain fully functional for at least a couple of weeks should the government shut down Friday. A spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said the judiciary will be able to sustain operations until Feb. 9 in the event of a shut down. Funding would come from a mix of revenues from fees and long-term appropriations, the spokeswoman said.Congress has until Friday to reach a deal to keep the government funded. It appeared Republican lawmakers lacked the votes needed to pass a spending bill by midnight as of Thursday afternoon. In the last government shutdown, which occurred in 2013 and lasted from Oct. 1 to Oct. 17, the judiciary remained open and funded until a deal was reached. However, as the shutdown continued, district and circuit courts began to make contingency plans in anticipation that funds could be exhausted. Individual districts and circuits would have been left to make their own decisions about their local staffing needs and which employees to furlough.In an email, District of Columbia Circuit Executive Betsy Paret said it will be "business as usual" at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for at least the next couple weeks in the event of a shut down. Should Congress not reach a deal by Feb. 9, Paret said the appeals court would still hold oral arguments and keep the clerk's office open to accept case filings even though some employees may need to be furloughed."If we do furlough staff, we plan to do so in such a way that the burden is shared by all court staff on a rotating basis to ensure no employee is more negatively impacted than another while at the same time providing the necessary staff support to the court so court operations are not disrupted," Paret said. As for the district court in Washington, D.C., a spokeswoman said that in case of a prolonged shut down, it would implement a contingency plan "with respect to essential personnel and court operations." She said further details would be provided should such a situation occur. While federal courts will remain open, operations and cases will likely be delayed as attorneys and staff for the federal government, including the Department of Justice, would be furloughed. Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer in Washington, D.C., said that during the 2013 shutdown, his work all but halted. "For what I do, everything virtually goes to a standstill," Zaid said. "It would be very similar to what happens when there's a federal holiday: I'm bored. No emails, no phone calls. Because my practice is primarily federal, it is an arid desert when the government shuts down." A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately return a request for comment, but a Sept. 8, 2017, contingency plan for fiscal year 2018 explains that the DOJ will only continue certain activities in the event of a lapse in funding. Those include activities funded by permanent appropriations or those related to "emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property." According to the plan, which uses data as of June 24, 2017, nearly 83 percent of DOJ employees would likely be furloughed. The document said that while criminal litigation should continue "without interruption," civil litigation should be postponed to the "extent that this can be done without compromising to a significant degree the safety of human life or the protection of property." Civil litigators, the documents said, should request that active cases that don't fit that description be postponed until funding is available. In the 2013 shutdown, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York issued an order staying all civil cases in that district other than civil forfeiture cases. In Washington, D.C., District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly declined the DOJ's request to stay the ongoing litigation in the government's antitrust case against major U.S. airlines, writing that a stay would "delay the necessary speedy disposition" of the case.If a court denies a motion to stay litigation, the DOJ plan instructs that civil litigation staffing will be limited to the minimum level need to comply with a court order."It will definitely disrupt certain cases," said Alex Bourelly, a partner at Baker Botts in Washington, D.C. "Not everybody at DOJ is considered an essential employee. If you've got certain types of cases, usually civil cases, those lawyers may be furloughed." Bourelly added that other areas of the firm's work could be disrupted when clients are unable to work, such as practices dealing with federal contracts.