Jacqueline Harlow recalls skiing with Randall Rader in Vail, Colo., this past winter. A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Rader hadn’t hit the slopes very often. But he headed straight for the intermediate run and would “bomb straight down hills,” said Harlow, a former Rader clerk.
The 62-year-old judge is about to traverse another, and perhaps even more challenging, course — as the new chief judge of the Federal Circuit. Here, at least, he has a bit more experience. A member of the circuit since 1990, Rader is a well-known commodity in the intellectual property world and is known as one of the sharpest questioners on the court. And like his skiing, his patent law opinions are often vigorous and unequivocal.
