Billings Learned Hand was a famed American judge. Hand served for many years as Chief Judge and intellectual leader of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, headquartered in Manhattan, after prior service on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Hand is remembered in connection with early cases construing the free speech clause of the First Amendment and as a pioneer in applying economic reasoning to American tort law. He is considered by many to be the most influential American judge never to have served on the Supreme Court of the United States; indeed, when asked who was the most outstanding among his colleagues, Supreme Court justice Benjamin Cardozo once replied, referring to Hand, that "The greatest living American jurist is not on the Supreme Court".