Reforming the Federal Judiciary: My Former Court Needs to Overhaul Its Staff Attorney Program and Begin Televising Its Oral Arguments (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781976014796)

Richard Posner ("Dick" to his friends) was born in New York City in 1939, the only child of Max and Blanche Posner. Max was a successful lawyer and businessman, Blanche an outstanding English teacher in New York public high schools. Dick was enrolled in top-flight private schools in Manhattan, beginning in prekindergarten. After the Posners moved in Scarsdale in 1948, he was enrolled in top-flight public schools in Scarsdale and later in Bronxville. Admitted to Yale College at age 16 (skipping his fourth year of high school), Dick graduated summa cum laude and three years later graduated first in his class at Harvard Law School. Following a Supreme Court clerkship and stints in the Federal Trade Commission, the Solicitor General's Office, and a presidential commission on communications policy, Dick became a law professor first at Stanford and then a year later at the University of Chicago, where he was a full professor from his appointment in 1970 until his appointment to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1981. He has just retired from the court after 35 years, including 7 years as the court's chief judge. In the course of his long career he has published 65 books (this book will be number 66), hundreds of articles and blog posts, and more than 3,300 judicial opinions. He has received 11 honorary degrees.