In an e-mail published over at Velvel on National Affairs, Judge Richard Posner writes:
The problem is that we no longer have a culture of writing. Writing is now a specialty. So judges, politicians, businessmen, lawyers–and now it seems law professors–increasingly hire ghostwriters (whether they’re called ghostwriters, law clerks, or research assistants) as specialists in writing. I am one of the dinosaurs who still does all my own opinion writing (and of course book and article writing as well). You probably are too. But let’s face it: we’re on the road to extinction.
Folks, I have a confession to make. Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Larry. I am one of Orin Kerr’s ghostwriters. I am part of “Team Blog,” the group that writes Kerr’s blog posts. There’s another group, “Team Law Review,” that handles Kerr’s legal scholarship. Did you like that recent post exposing the press miscoverage of the Patriot Act? That was me. Maybe you enjoyed the post on the recent Stanford Law grad who was a prostitute? That was me, too. (I’d like to take credit for the Blogosphere Challenge posts, but that series is a combined effort of Cathy, Charles, and Nick– by the way, great job, guys!) Speaking on behalf of the entire team, we hope you enjoy our work; it certainly annoys us that we get stuck with the writing while Kerr gets the credit. Some guys have all the luck, I guess. Anyway, I should get back to my assignments; Kerr has me looking for a Patriot Act angle to the Stanford prostitute story, and he’ll be very upset if I don’t find one.
(Thanks to Howard for the link.)
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