Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2018
Recommended Citation
Douglas E. Abrams,
Judges and Their Editors, 74 Journal of the Missouri Bar 194
(2018).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/facpubs/758
Article
7-2018
Douglas E. Abrams,
Judges and Their Editors, 74 Journal of the Missouri Bar 194
(2018).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/facpubs/758
Comments
This essay discusses the roles of personal law clerks, central staff clerks, and Reporters of Decisions in editing judges’ opinions at the drafting stage. “The overarching lesson [is] that by submerging pride of authorship during an opinion’s gestation and by weighing editorial input with an open mind, judges secure in their craft advance the interests of justice.” The essay also discusses the constraints imposed by the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct on the circle of persons a judge may consult without giving the parties advance notice. The essay is adapted from Prof. Abrams’ address to the international meeting of the Association of Reporters of Judicial Decisions in Halifax, Nova Scotia on August 7, 2009.