Later this week, we will drive down to Milwaukee for my thirty-fifth law school reunion. I look forward to the event for a number of reasons. Those three years of incredibly hard work could not have been survived without the friendships that truly were forged in the foreign territory of Civil Procedure, Property, Torts, and Contracts. Today all of these topics and many more – no one taught health law back then – are part of my fiber and who I am.

I am a lawyer and neither apologize nor think twice about the fact that I think like a lawyer. We hope that means a rational review of facts, marshalling those facts, and then advocating for one’s client. Would that there were more today who were lawyer-like, concerning themselves with the facts before advocating for their issue or cause.

I hear that some from my era will not attend because of  a grudge against the law school. Really? Such a long time to hold onto anger or hurt or whatever it is that grinds in the belly. I prefer to return because of the people I met. While I look forward to stepping into the new building, and, I suppose, walking through the old building as well, that important three-year time was all about the people. The friends who challenged the way I thought, supported me in my doubt, and laughed with me over beer. Some will be those with whom I created a study group during the first few weeks of that first year. That fluid group met regularly for three years. I have remained in touch with a few and will spend time with them. We have referred work to each other and have traded stories about children and family as the years have passed. But much of our focus this weekend will be on those three short memorable years when it was us against them.

There will be stories of this professor or that, this event or challenge, and cases handled since those important days thirty-five years ago.

I return because of the friends and to reflect on Marquette Law and what it gave me. I did not know as I left how incredibly well-prepared I was to face the challenges presented by the practice of law. Yes, Boden, Ghiardi, Kircher, Edwards, Clausen, Hetrick, Klitzke and Aiken taught me well, but it was the classmates  who stood together against all they threw at us that I thank most. I didn’t know then, as we argued points of evidence on our walk back from Judge Decker’s courtroom, that I was preparing to explain to a lost judge in Minnesota that there is a difference between past recollection recorded and present recollection revived and, yes, judge, it does make a difference.

I write this on Memorial Day; I don’t know if our class was “older,” but a number of classmates had been forged in Viet Nam. That seemed to allow them to stand in the face of Professor Aiken or Ghiardi with a sense of humor that said “this ain’t nothing.” If they could do that, maybe I could. I studied and argued with an Air Force pilot who was whip smart. I was a draft dodger who was only partially successful. My Army Reserve duty allowed me to avoid Viet Nam, but on some weekends I set aside law books and went to Milwaukee County South Division, where as a medic and drug counselor I worked on a locked unit with bars on the windows. The draft dodger and pilot became close friends as they disagreed on almost everything. The pilot dragged me along.

This is the week then of reflecting on others. There were those who should have been my classmates who died in what Mississippi Senator John Stennis called an “impossible war in an impossible situation.”  A classmate did while we were in law school. Others since.  I “remember” and honor them as I look forward to meeting with men and women who helped me form the foundation on which I have stood for thirty-five years as a lawyer. For this I am thankful and say “We are Marquette.”