Legal Commentary

Judicial Law Clerk Without a Law Degree

By Eugene Volokh

From Carl Kaysen?s New York Times obituary, published several weeks ago:

Dr. Kaysen earned a master?s degree in economics at Harvard in 1947 and his doctorate there in 1954. By then he was an assistant professor at Harvard but had also served as a law clerk for Judge Charles E. Wyzanski Jr. of United States District Court.

That was unusual for someone without a law degree, but Judge Wyzanski needed an economist to advise him in a landmark case in which the United Shoe Machinery Corporation was eventually found guilty of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act by monopolizing its leasing practices. Dr. Kaysen?s 1956 book, ?United States vs. United Shoe Machinery Corporation,? became a seminal antitrust study.

Thanks to Prof. Steve Wasby for the pointer.