Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Howard Bashman's 20 Questions for Judge Posner. We are lucky at Outside Counsel: our judicial heroes can include both Justice Holmes and Judge Posner. (And a few others-- Justice Brennan, who Posner clerked for, is another.)
"My advice for lawyers practicing before me and my colleagues is threefold: always explain the purpose of a rule that you want us to apply in your favor, because the purpose of a rule delimits its scope and guides its application; always give us practical reasons for the result you are seeking; and don't overestimate the knowledge that an appellate judge brings to your case, because we have very little time to prepare for argument in depth, and the breadth of jurisdiction of the federal courts is such that we cannot possibly be experts in all or most of the fields out of which appeals arise."
But: "I think [judicial salaries are] too low, not because I consider myself underpaid, but because the current salary makes it difficult to hire successful lawyers from elite law firms, especially in cities in which the cost of living is very high, such as New York; and as a result the diversity of the federal judiciary is reduced along with the judiciary's sophistication in commercial cases." I fail to see how hiring successful lawyers from elite firms would increase the diversity of the federal bench-- walk around the halls in Cravath some time and tell me how diverse you think it is.
"My advice for lawyers practicing before me and my colleagues is threefold: always explain the purpose of a rule that you want us to apply in your favor, because the purpose of a rule delimits its scope and guides its application; always give us practical reasons for the result you are seeking; and don't overestimate the knowledge that an appellate judge brings to your case, because we have very little time to prepare for argument in depth, and the breadth of jurisdiction of the federal courts is such that we cannot possibly be experts in all or most of the fields out of which appeals arise."
But: "I think [judicial salaries are] too low, not because I consider myself underpaid, but because the current salary makes it difficult to hire successful lawyers from elite law firms, especially in cities in which the cost of living is very high, such as New York; and as a result the diversity of the federal judiciary is reduced along with the judiciary's sophistication in commercial cases." I fail to see how hiring successful lawyers from elite firms would increase the diversity of the federal bench-- walk around the halls in Cravath some time and tell me how diverse you think it is.
// posted by Bill @ 1:08 PM 
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