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Published by the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law. Reprinted with permission. © 2021 Duke University School of Law. All rights reserved. JUDICATURE.DUKE.EDU 76 THE STORIED THIRD BRANCH Vol. 105 No. 1 A model of collegiality JUDGE HARRY T. EDWARDS SENIOR JUDGE, U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT Three tributes by Sri Srinivasan, Pamela Harris, and Daphna Renan One of Judge Harry Edwards’s succes- challenging endeavor given the well- chief judge and marked a fitting cul- sors as chief judge of the D.C. Circuit earned reputation of judges as often mination of his tenure. The case was has called Judge Edwards the “Great more tech-phobic than tech-savvy. extraordinarily complex, with a record Chief.” That is a fitting appellation. He oversaw the design of a substan- containing tens of thousands of pages While Judge Edwards could serve as tial expansion of the court’s physical and oral arguments spanning multiple chief for no more than the statutorily plant, including the incorporation of days. As an indication of the case’s sig- prescribed period of seven years — new common areas and lunch spaces, nificance, the court elected to hear it en not the 34 years served by the original enhancing the ability of judges and banc at the outset, an exceedingly rare “Great Chief,” Chief Justice Marshall — court personnel to gather and inter- occurrence. The dispute was highly vis- Judge Edwards’s tenure as chief judge act. He organized a lunchtime speaker ible and hotly contested, engendering is rightly considered a markedly sig- series for the judges, initiated a tra- predictions of a divided and perhaps nificant and successful one. His close dition of annual dinners, and treated splintered disposition. Those predic- friend and former colleague on the D.C. judges with handpicked gifts on their tions proved decidedly wrong. Under Circuit, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, birthdays. In short, he played the roles Judge Edwards’s stewardship, the court said that Chief Judge Edwards “trans- of architect, social chair, personal shop- issued a unanimous, 125-page opinion, formed the court into a model of per, and IT consultant, all to great effect. with every judge drafting a portion of collegiality and efficiency” and “steer[ed] All of those measures were of a the opinion and no judge writing sepa- the court on a course of caring collegi- piece with, and were in service of, the rately. Judges on the court at the time ality.” I’m particularly grateful for that broader object of promoting collegi- have described their pride in deliver- model, and am a direct beneficiary of it, ality, which could be considered Judge ing a unanimous decision under — and as a member of the court. Edwards’s organizing principle of in many ways as a credit to — Judge The ledger of Judge Edwards’s leadership. The fruits of that push to Edwards’s leadership. accomplishments as chief judge runs collegiality were nowhere manifested The Microsoft decision was unsigned, exceedingly long. Among other initia- more tangibly than in the court’s con- signifying a court acting as a collective tives, he directed efforts to automate sideration of United States v. Microsoft, institution rather than an assemblage the court’s processing of matters in fun- 253 F.3d 34 (D.C. Cir. 2001) (en banc). of individuals. Judges, though, are inde- damental ways, significantly improving The Microsoft decision issued in the pendent actors, often proudly so, and the court’s efficiency — an especially last month of Judge Edwards’s time as a chief judge has virtually no formal Published by the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law. Reprinted with permission. © 2021 Duke University School of Law. All rights reserved. JUDICATURE.DUKE.EDU Judicature 77 authority over her or his colleagues. If we do this while modeling integrity, Instead, a chief judge’s authority, such confidence, resilience, and success, the as it is, rests almost entirely on having generations that follow will be better the trust of one’s colleagues, and hence positioned to enjoy the fruits of what on earning a faith that one is acting this country has to offer.” One would with fairness, with integrity, and with A chief judge’s be hard pressed to formulate a more the broader interests of the institu- apt description of Judge Edwards’s own tion firmly in mind. That kind of trust authority rests life, example, and legacy. is gained over time by the character almost entirely on of one’s actions. Judge Edwards, by all having the trust of — Sri Srinivasan is chief judge of the U.S. Court of accounts, had that trust in abundance Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He served as an Assistant in his time as chief judge. one’s colleagues. to the Solicitor General and as the Principal Deputy Judge Edwards evidently earned Judge Edwards, by Solicitor General of the United States. He was a law the confidence and admiration of his all accounts, had that clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and to Judge J. peers from an early age. This is a per- Harvie Wilkinson III. son, after all, who served as his class trust in abundance in president for each of his four years his time as chief judge. in high school. It is not at all the case, When I became an appellate judge though, that he was openly embraced — CHIEF JUDGE SRINIVASAN (ABOVE, LEFT, in 2014, I fully expected that Judge and willingly accepted into any insti- WITH LISA FRELINGHUYSEN, JUDGE EDWARDS, Edwards would be my role model. I AND PAMELA CARRINGTON-EDWARDS). tution of which he was a part. Hardly had watched Judge Edwards — first so. Rather, Judge Edwards has spo- as his law clerk, and then as a law- ken of his experiences as an African yer and a friend — hold himself to American contending with racial bias “something of a legend at the school, the most exacting standards, metic- while growing up and when coming of one of the best all around students ulously preparing for every case and age in the legal profession. we ever had.” Nonetheless, the major then turning out fully reasoned and In high school, a young Harry law firms with which he interviewed carefully crafted opinions. Everything Edwards was told by his guidance coun- in multiple cities told him that they had to be done perfectly because the selor that he was not “suited” to attend could not hire him because of his race. stakes were so high: Judge Edwards Cornell because of his race. He applied It was only due to the intervention always kept front and center the real- and went anyway. Fraternity rush took of a faculty mentor that one Chicago world impact of his work on people’s place in his first days at Cornell, but he firm ultimately extended him an offer, lives. That core commitment to get- received no invitations to join a fra- which he accepted. He later became ting it right, I thought, would be my ternity at that time because none of the first African American law pro- takeaway from Judge Edwards. the participating fraternities accepted fessor at Michigan Law School, which All of that was true, and I still am Black students. The entire time Judge hired him in part in response to stu- working toward the impossibly high Edwards attended Cornell, there were dent protests demanding greater bar Judge Edwards has set. But in my no more than ten African American diversity on the faculty. new job, I also have come to appreciate students on campus. While he excelled Judge Edwards’s fortitude, per- another of Judge Edwards’s commit- there academically, he has described sistence, and record of achievement ments: his commitment to collegiality the social experience as a “nightmare.” in the face of the bias he encountered in appellate decision-making. Getting When he then attended the have enabled him to become not just a it right, it turns out, is not only about University of Michigan Law School, he leader in the profession, but a pioneer. the work ethic and the analytic rigor. was the sole African American student He has said the following in reflecting For Judge Edwards, it also is about in his class. Once again, he performed on “the ongoing quest for racial justice”: the engagement with his colleagues, superbly as a student. A later dean of “As lawyers, we certainly understand a collective process in which judges the law school, as recounted by Justice the need to be vigilant in continuing to reason their way together to the Ginsburg, described Judge Edwards as press for racial justice in this country. right answer. u Published by the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law. Reprinted with permission. © 2021 Duke University School of Law. All rights reserved. JUDICATURE.DUKE.EDU 78 THE STORIED THIRD BRANCH Vol. 105 No. 1 Judge Edwards’s passion for judi- take full advantage of the diversity of cial collegiality is well known. When I backgrounds and professional exper- clerked for him in 1990, the D.C. Circuit tise on our courts. was just starting to come out of what At bottom, Judge Edwards’s commit- was widely thought to be a person- Judge Edwards ment to collegiality boils down to one ally bitter and adversarial period in the embraces the thing: the generous conviction that court’s history. Restoring a sense of we do our best work together, actively community and collegiality was very collective dimension engaging each other in an atmosphere important to Judge Edwards, especially of appellate decision- of inclusion and mutual respect.

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