Judge Posner’s cat, Pixie.
When a giant of the judicial branch such as Richard Posner decides to retire, it is only natural that tributes from others in the field would start coming out of the woodwork — particularly when the retirement is sudden, as it was in this case. Patrick Gregory at Big Law Business has collected kind words from the judge’s former clerks, and they shed light on the man behind the robe.
There is Posner’s obvious intellect. One former clerk describes clerking for the judge to studying music with Mozart:
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Clerking for Posner was “like being a music student who had the chance to work with Mozart,” former clerk Richard W. Porter told Bloomberg BNA by email.
“The sweeping breadth and depth of Judge Posner’s interest, inquiry and work is extraordinary, but his pragmatic, simple and approachable opinions are the lasting gift of his genius,” Porter, now a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Chicago, said.
Another clerk waxes about his gamesmanship, particularly when he claimed victory in being overturned 9-0:
In that [Khan v. State Oil Co.] decision, Posner took aim at high court precedent, Shapiro said.
He wrote that it “was wrong and needed to be updated” in light of developments in antitrust law,” [former clerk Carolyn Shapiro, now a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law], said.
The “whole opinion is like a cert petition for the defendant,” who later won a 9-0 decision from the high court in State Oil Co. v. Khan, Shapiro said.
A case book noted that he “might be the only judge who’s ever been vindicated by being reversed 9-0,” Shapiro said.
A quality many admired was his ability to learn from new facts and admit when previous positions were wrong. In today’s world of hot-take punditry, that thoughtfulness and willingness to confess error is particularly noteworthy:
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“Despite being a genius, he is fully aware that he has limited knowledge of the world and may be mistaken in his views,” former clerk Edward Morrison, now a professor at Columbia Law School, New York, told Bloomberg BNA by email.
Posner showed his open-mindedness in his book, “A Failure of Capitalism,” Shapiro said.
He initially took a laissez-faire approach to cases, as “one of the real founders of the law and economics movement,” she said.
But the 2008 financial crisis changed Posner’s thinking, she said.
Posner wrote that the crisis occurred “because we didn’t have adequate regulation” of markets, Shapiro said.
But despite the legal accolades, one of the things that stands out the most in Patrick’s piece is Judge Posner’s devotion to his cat, Pixie. Though you may have heard about the furry feline before, imaging the formidable judge posing his cat with seasonal decorations just has to bring a smile to your face:
“During our weekly (and sometimes more frequent) lunches, we would talk about everything from politics to religion to archaeology to movies,” and also about his cat, Pixie, [former clerk Julia K. Schwartz, now an associate at Miller Shakman & Beem] Schwartz said.
The judge is “fiercely devoted to Pixie,” Schwartz said.
“While I was clerking, he gave me a calendar that depicts a different Pixie photo for each month of the year,” which “still hangs on the wall in my office,” she said.
In the December photo, “Pixie stands between two wooden Nutcracker dolls,” she said.
You can read the other clerk memories here.
Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).