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ON LAW CLERKS In both countries, law clerks attract con- siderable suspicion. A Canadian newspaper, the National Post, once described our law clerks as “recently graduated twenty-some- thing law students weaned on an ideological soup of radical feminism, multiculturalism, and moral relativism, who see the law as a means to translate these doctrines into pub- lic policy without the intervening necessity of elections and legislation.” In a similar vein, former Chief Justice Wil- liam Rehnquist once said that most law clerks tend to show “extreme solicitude for the claims of communists and other crimi- nal defendants, expansion of Federal power at the expense of State power, and great sym- pathy towards any government regulation of business.” And Justice Douglas once de- scribed his law clerks – no doubt affection- ately – as “the lowest form of human life.” The late Canadian Justice John Sopinka often had his law clerks draft his speeches. He noted that it backfired only once. On a Friday before the Canadian Thanksgiving week- end, Justice Sopinka realized that he’d forgotten to delegate his speech that he was to give the following Tuesday. He had planned a weekend away and wasn’t able to write the speech himself, so he called in the only law clerk who was still at the office. “Geoffrey,” Sopinka said, “I’m giving a speech on Tuesday. I want you to draft it and to have it on my desk Tues- day morning.” Geoffrey protested that he was attending a family reunion in Vancouver. “Never mind that,” said Sopinka, “on my desk Tuesday morning.” When Sopinka returned on Tuesday morning, the draft was sitting on his desk, typed beautifully. He glanced over the draft and decided that it looked very good. In the taxi to the speech venue, Sopinka began to read it carefully. The quality was excellent. It raised some fascinating ques- tions to be answered in the conclusion. Sopinka arrived at his destination before he could read the conclusion but he was quite confident that it would not disappoint. Sopinka rushed inside the lecture hall. He was already in- troduced as he entered. The speech turned out to be even better when delivered live. The rapt audience listened at- tentively as Sopinka began to read the conclusion, which began as follows: “In conclusion, as promised, here are my answers to the perplexing problems which I have raised.” The text of the speech then continued in block capitals, “NOW IMPROVISE, YOU S.O.B.” Thank you again for conferring on me the privilege of be- ing made an Honorary Fellow of the ACTL. Jeffrey S. Leon Toronto, ON SUMMER 2023 JOURNAL 20 Now, I don’t share these perspectives. In my view, our law clerks are brilliant young lawyers who are utterly devoted to their Judges and to public service. They are paragons of excellence and of virtue – and I should know, I was once a Supreme Court clerk myself.