Frank, Jerome (1889–1957)

US judge and legal philosopher. He joined the Securities and Exchange Commission and went on to serve on a US Circuit Court of Appeals. His book, Courts on Trial (1949), stressed the uncertainties and fallibility of the judicial process.

He was born in New York City and, after graduating from the University of Chicago, and before attending its law school, he served as secretary to his political science professor, Charles E Merriam. He handled corporate reorganizations in Chicago and New York before serving as counsel to several New Deal agencies. His other major publication, Law and the Modern Mind (1930), argued for ‘legal realism’, with an emphasis on the psychological forces at work in legal matters.