The Hon. Richard Posner retired from the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago on Saturday, September 2. His decision to step down from the bench after 36 years was announced late last Friday. Now 78, Posner was appointed to the court by President Ronald Regan in 1981 and served as its chief judge from 1993 to 2000. 

Posner is well-known in the legal community as a prolific writer on and off of the bench. During his career, he wrote more than 3,300 opinions, as well as dozens of books and articles spanning many legal topics. He is one of the most widely cited appellate judges in the United States.

In a statement to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Posner said, “I am proud to have promoted a pragmatic approach to judging during my time on the Court, and to have had the opportunity to apply my view that judicial opinions should be easy to understand and that judges should focus on the right and wrong in every case."

A faculty member of the University of Chicago, Posner plans to continue to teach and publish after stepping down from the bench, with his work focusing on social justice reform. 

Posner earned his bachelor's degree from Yale University before graduating from Harvard Law School. He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. and was an assistant to Thurgood Marshall, who was then the U.S. solicitor general. Posner has taught at Stanford University and is currently a lecturer at the University of Chicago.