|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
From the Dean
The School of Law has been blessed with many extraordinary teachers. Each of us who attended law school here has a favorite professor—perhaps more than one. Many recall with great fondness (and trepidation) the inimitable John Fox (the Professor Kingsfield of his day). Many loved Dean Bob Farley, a man of great character and integrity who had a passionate love of the law. Later generations would revere Bill Champion, Parham Williams and John Bradley. Still later, Bob Weems, Robert Khayat, Guff Abbott and George Cochran come to mind as great classroom teachers. And a new generation of students today have many models to look to, including those whom students have chosen to receive the Outstanding Professor award, e.g., John Czarnetzky and Jack Nowlin. One of the hallmarks of the UM law school is that it has many outstanding professors who might not have been chosen for the Outstanding Professor award but who, year after year, receive absolutely outstanding student evaluations, e.g., Karen Green, Gary Myers, Lisa Roy, Matthew Hall, Ron Rychlak, Tim Hall, Debbie Bell and numerous others. Today, I am thinking of the more nontraditional teaching modes that could be categorized as “teaching law in the grand manner,” namely clinical education. Unlike 10 years ago, the law school is blessed today to offer students many and varied clinical opportunities—the Civil Law Clinic (which in turn includes clinics in Elder Law, Consumer Law, Child Advocacy, Legislation, Domestic Violence, “Street Law” and Immigration Law), the Criminal Appeals Clinic and the Prosecution Externship Program. And Professor Debbie Bell is working on an additional program to involve even more of our students in pro bono work. The clinical experience for our students not only teaches them valuable legal skills but also is a lesson on selfless service, providing service to those who cannot afford it. In a recent service at my church, the collective prayer extolled one of our great virtues: “the one who serves is the greatest of all.” As lawyers, we need to be reminded that the first shall go last, and the last shall go first. This is teaching law in the grand manner. And what constitutes “a great lawyer”? I think of, among others, a lawyer like Amanda Jones (JD 96), who gave so generously of her time to help others during the months following Hurricane Katrina. I think of third-year law student Allison Korn, who in the aftermath of Katrina looked around for a way to help and created the Student Hurricane Network, which in October received the Lexis-Nexis Martindale-Hubbell Public Service Award at the Equal Justice Works Awards Banquet in Washington, D.C. (see Page 8). And I think of Constance Slaughter-Harvey, who at the ABA annual meeting in Honolulu in August received the Margaret Brent Award from the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, one of only five awards nationwide, for her work championing civil rights (see Page 27). There are many great lawyers, and many of them go unheralded. The University of Mississippi School of Law has a long-standing tradition as a training ground for producing great lawyers, lawyers who epitomize the role of lawyer as servant. What a privilege it is to be associated with a law school with that kind of heritage. As I begin my 10th year as dean this fall, I am once again reminded of the great traditions of this law school and the many great lawyers it has produced. We truly teach law in the grand manner and make great lawyers. Holmes would have been proud.
Samuel M. Davis (JD 69) |
