Posner, Richard A(llen) (1939– )

US judge and legal scholar. He became known for his economic approach to legal issues such as antitrust law; he is also known for expressing his views on many subjects outside the narrow confines of law, publishing many articles and books, including Problems of Jurisprudence (1990). He is credited with having inspired a new, more interdisciplinaary orientation in contemporary American law schools. Regarded by some as a conservative, he preferred to see himself as a legal pragmatist, somewhat sceptical of many of the broad claims for the role of law and the courts in modern society.

He was born in New York, New York. He held several government positions prior to his teaching posts at the law schools of Stanford (1968–69) and the University of Chicago (1969). In 1981 he was appointed judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, sitting in Chicago, by which time he is said to have made a fortune as a legal consultant.