DeanWuBlog

A Former Student

I am a client of a former student. To advance my research on a book, I have retained a a prominent local law firm to litigate a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) claim. They are doing so, very graciously on a pro bono basis. Aside from my gratitude for their services, I was delighted to learn that someone whom I had played a minor role in training several years ago was assigned as the associate on the matter.

I am honored to be represented by a former student. Whatever the outcome, I am pleased to see that an advocate whose development I influenced is so capable. The brief he wrote was wonderful, without a doubt far better than I could have penned. That is an accomplishment in which any teacher can take pride: to have imparted some skills, perhaps, to another individual who then can be claimed as a colleague.
The occasion allowed me an opportunity to reflect on the profession.

A law professor, of course, professes; the title remains amply descriptive. In the classroom during the law school, it appropriate that the professor have a different status. After all, a professor would not be entitled to stand on one side of the podium and earn a living offering opinions, if he did not have some superior knowledge as compared to those seated and scribbling notes in the hope of joining the bar. But a professor would fail to understand his task, if he believed that the position he enjoyed was permanent. The point of the exercise is to ensure that as many as possible to one’s students become one’s equals in every respect, even experience – for an attorney who bills hours will, within a few years, surpass the amount of direct interaction with clients and actual transactions and disputes of all except the most seasoned lecturers from whose tutelage she has benefitted.