Legendary Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California died in his sleep Thursday night at the age of 87. He was both a great champion of civil rights, and an infamous curmudgeon:
The gravel-voiced jurist relished [his] reputation [as one of the more demanding judges in the Northern District]. “When someone comes [into my courtroom on a case] and hasn’t done any work on it, when the other side has worked on it and I’ve worked on it for a long, long time, and he’s out there having done nothing but charge his client these outrageous prices per hour for nothing, I dress him down, and I don’t make any pretense about [] doing it,” he said in a 1992 interview. “The result is I get very good argument in my court.”
The Recorder has a fond and interesting obit here.
BTW, it was Judge Orrick’s father who was the original “Orrick” in Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. That’s pretty amazing, considering that the original Orrick’s son lived for 87 years, concluding only yesterday. Not many families have histories reaching back that far into California’s legal past.
The gravel-voiced jurist relished [his] reputation [as one of the more demanding judges in the Northern District]. “When someone comes [into my courtroom on a case] and hasn’t done any work on it, when the other side has worked on it and I’ve worked on it for a long, long time, and he’s out there having done nothing but charge his client these outrageous prices per hour for nothing, I dress him down, and I don’t make any pretense about [] doing it,” he said in a 1992 interview. “The result is I get very good argument in my court.”
The Recorder has a fond and interesting obit here.
BTW, it was Judge Orrick’s father who was the original “Orrick” in Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. That’s pretty amazing, considering that the original Orrick’s son lived for 87 years, concluding only yesterday. Not many families have histories reaching back that far into California’s legal past.
Legendary Judge William Orrick of the Northern District of California died in his sleep Thursday night at the age of 87. He was both a great champion of civil rights, and an infamous curmudgeon:
The gravel-voiced jurist relished [his] reputation [as one of the more demanding judges in the Northern District]. “When someone comes [into my courtroom on a case] and hasn’t done any work on it, when the other side has worked on it and I’ve worked on it for a long, long time, and he’s out there having done nothing but charge his client these outrageous prices per hour for nothing, I dress him down, and I don’t make any pretense about [] doing it,” he said in a 1992 interview. “The result is I get very good argument in my court.”
The Recorder has a fond and interesting obit here.
BTW, it was Judge Orrick’s father who was the original “Orrick” in Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. That’s pretty amazing, considering that the original Orrick’s son lived for 87 years, concluding only yesterday. Not many families have histories reaching back that far into California’s legal past.
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