My Colleague, Steve Williams: Gladly Would He Learn and Gladly Teach
Steve Williams joined the DC Circuit in June of 1986. I joined the court five months later. I knew that Steve had been appointed by President Reagan, but I had no idea when and he seemed such a natural as a judge that I thought he had been there for several years. This impression was dispelled only now, when I checked his Wikipedia page while writing this tribute.
Steve was also a natural academic, which was one of the reasons he was so well-suited to the bench. He was a professor of law at the University of Colorado for 17 years before donning the robe. His unbridled curiosity and intellectual rigor—qualities no longer associated with much of the legal academy—made him both a delight and a challenge as a colleague. Our colleague David Tatel so aptly said, well before Steve’s passing, “There is no one with whom I’d rather disagree.” Indeed, to disagree with Steve was to invite a conversation—invariably honest and respectful—that was sure to sharpen one’s own ideas, perhaps even to change them.
