Thanks so much, Deans Kearney and O’Hear, for the invitation to serve as the inaugural alumni blogger on this most excellent effort. I added the MULS Faculty Blog to my RSS reader the day it was announced, and am glad to have done so.
You’ll forgive me if I start the new month by focusing on last month’s question: who was your most influential law school professor? I had originally intended to modify the question slightly and praise Professor Christopher Wolfe (pictured above), but I understand all the best points were already covered at the STMS banquet by Dean Kearney and Katie Longley.
So instead, allow me to praise the question itself. In short, it is good that we reflect on who influences us, and it is worthwhile to identify people we look up to and admire. I am currently researching and drafting a law review article that encourages lawyers to be more intentional about selecting a hero to learn from and emulate. (I take the liberty of suggesting several candidates for the job as well.)
While reading up on historical value as a basis for eminent domain, I came across this quote from the Supreme Court of Kansas: “[H]istory is inspirational. . . . [T]he careers of men stir the emotions, arouse enthusiasm, and awaken zeal which fuse into patriotism . . . .” State ex rel. Smith v. Kemp, 261 P. 556, 558 (Kan. 1928).
One thing led to another, and I am now quite firmly convinced that “[e]very lawyer needs a hero in the law.” Howard M. Erichson, Tribute: Stewart G. Pollock, 74 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1217, 1217 (1999). As each of the posters showed when discussing their most influential professors, these people can have a profound effect on our conduct every day as professionals and people.
I’d be interested to hear from readers: do you have a hero in the law?
Does Clarance Darrow’s stern visage observe all that takes place in your law office? Does a quote from James Madison dominate your desktop’s backdrop? Did you take Prof. Fallone’s advice and read up on Archibald Cox? Do you look up to a legal hero or heroine?
It is Thomas More’s visage that observes all that takes place in my office. More, of course, was a brilliant lawyer and scholar, which should make his image unsurprising to see in a law professor’s office. To be sure, as a transitional figure in history, who looked back to the Middle Ages as much as he looked forward to the Renaissance, his public career included some activities that seem off-putting to modern ears, e.g., his persecution of witches and heretics. Still, I admire More’s learning, integrity, and commitment to public service.
I should add that More’s portrait is displayed in my office not only for its subject but also for its artistry. This is a reproduction of the famous Holbein portrait of More. And even in the form of a cheap reproduction, Holbein’s work is stunning. This is no idealized depiction of a great man, but a very human portrait — figurative warts and all. The face appears care-worn, but sensitive and very much alive: viewing it, one feels that one somehow really knows this man who lived so many centuries ago.
I have my share of heroes, both in history and the present, but I am in general leery of anything resembling hero-worship. Lionizing the “great ones” amounts to pronounced individualist ideology and also contributes to a Whiggish view of history. Those who are not “great” tend to disappear from our records and memories, and we overlook the social forces, cultural shifts, and cataclysmic events that are the true sources of historical change.
I echo Prof. O’Hear’s choice of St. Sir Thomas More, who was a true Man for All Seasons (not a cheap plaster saint statuette).
Illustrative of More’s complexity, First Things has just posted an article reviewing a recent scholarly conference on the Trial of STM at the University of Dallas (which I had the opportunity to attend):
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1237
The materials, including original sources on his treason trial, can be found here at the Center for Thomas More Studies: http://www.thomasmorestudies.org/conference_materials_08.html.
The law library has a donated copy of the readings packet. For those wishing to learn more about More, the student chapter of the St. Thomas More Society has donated Peter Ackroyd’s solid biography, which includes an especially informative chapter on the practice of law in 16c. London (e.g., an introduction to Law French, for whom we all can thank for those spell-check busters like “estoppel” and “replevin,” etc.)
The library also has Gerald Wegemer’s “A Thomas More Source Book” of primary documents (Catholic University of America Press, August 2004).
Finally, there are also multiple copies of the Special Edition DVD of the Academy Award-winning film “A Man for All Seasons,” with the late, great Paul Scofield and Orson Welles. The DVD contains a special feature on More’s life and times with prominent scholars.
I also found a rare early edition of Robert Bolt’s play (which the film adapted) at HalfPrice (for 50 cents!), which the library also has.
In sum, there is much More to read for those interested.
Whiggishly,
Peter Heyne
President, St. Thomas More Society, MULS