Judge Louis Pollak wore many hats and robes over the 89 years of his life, all with marked distinction. He excelled as an appellate advocate, a law school professor, and a dean of two prestigious law schools. Yet, his greatest professional legacy, the role in which his talents and temperament were on utmost display, is his tenure as a federal judge.
In his perhaps true calling, he had a rare aptitude for distilling legal complexity and following precedent rather than personal predisposition. He was not result-oriented. He didn’t take sides or have a personal or judicial agenda, but he did more than call balls and strikes. As William Coleman once put it, Pollak was the “quintessential expression … [of] the capacity to reconcile conflicting interests and objectives in a fair and impartial manner, balancing thoughtful respect for tradition and precedent with sensitive appreciation for civilization’s unwavering quest for the fulfillment of dignity.”
