Mediocrity

Federal Judges

Inside Straight: Institutionalizing Mediocrity

Here’s my thesis: We create rules to hedge against ineptitude, and we thus institutionalize mediocrity. Here are the examples. First, someone — the Administrative Office of the Courts? God? — creates rules to hedge against incomprehensible judicial opinions, and we thus discourage judges from writing exceptional opinions. When new federal appellate judges attend what is […]

Biglaw

Inside Straight: In Praise Of Mediocrity!

Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Inside Straight, Above the Law’s column for in-house counsel, written by Mark Herrmann. All this perfection crap. One reader wrote to me to complain. Surely, he said, there’s room in the world for a law firm that does work that’s “good enough for the occasion at a […]