I recently read William Domnarski’s excellent biography of Judge Richard Posner (link here) and below are some work habits of Judge Posner taken from the book, listed in order.
- Worked in long discrete focused blocks of time. He would continue on a task until it was completed. For example, he would spend the morning on one opinion, then a similar block of time later on a second opinion, then edit other opinions, etc. (p.98).
- Would write opinions at home during the evening after oral arguments. For example, he would come back to the office the next day with a 30 page opinion with “[citation]” in places for citations. He would give the draft to his clerk to write a critical memo, then Posner would take the memo and write a second draft, and this would repeat 4, 5, or 6 times (p. 98-99; p. 167).
- Posner asked for more work his first year as a judge on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals but was declined.
- Posner never used footnotes in his opinions (p. 101).
- On statutory interpretation, his starting point is not to fixate on words or clauses in question, but to ask the broader question of the statute’s purpose. For him, rather than ask about the definition of a word, we need “to ask what is at stake in the definition.” (p. 112).
- Posner enjoyed intellectual criticism to keep him sharp. “You want criticism rather than comfort and praise.” (p. 145-146).
- Posner would write his analysis first, and afterwards look for legal support. He wouldn’t read authorities first and then build a conclusion (p. 168).
- From years 2003-2009, took average of 15 trips per year, for conferences, workshops, lectures, debates, etc. (p. 196).
- Worked 7 days a week (p. 246).
- Wrote around 90 opinions per year. In comparison, Judge Henry Friendly wrote around 30 opinions per year (p. 249).
