President's Message
| Publication year | 2011 |
| Pages | 06 |
| Citation | Vol. 80 No. 3 Pg. 06 |
Special Guest Author
Jack Dalton
Becoming Lawyers of a Different Kind
Having agreed to the request of KBA President Glenn Braun to write an article for the Journal, I pondered on just about what I could write. After all, I am an octogenarian. There are many of us still around who maintain an active interest in Bar activities. But then I reflected back on a time when lawyers underwent a metamorphosis and became lawyers of a different kind. Here's how:
The usual heat and humidity ushered in the Lawrence spring, along with the blooming flowers, shrubs, and trees. The heat exacerbated by dark robes they wore was abated to a certain degree by the invention by an aspiring engineer, clandestinely sold under authority granted by the 1949 legislature authorizing beer sales. The cooling elixir consisted of a small 32-ounce tank to store the beer, kept cool by a miniature cooler. Suction was created by inhaling on a straw attached to the belt and cooler. The device was a great relief to many graduates and also seemed to add conviviality to the proceedings.
Most of the graduates and their guests had departed Lawrence for their home cities. But the vestiges of the professional schools, law and medicine, remained. Enrollment for both schools was scheduled to commence at 9 a.m. on Monday.
Monday brought a cooler day than the graduation day before. A relief because the law school, as well as most other buildings on the campus, was without any type of cooling equipment. The long-range weather forecast was not available and conditions existed which forebode any chance of comfortable weather. The aspiring law student was thus relegated to studying at night. Many gentlemen students removed shirts only to open access to little green bugs enjoying a meal.
Entry into the law school was not by LSAT but by the mere application of the prospective student to the law school. If one could survey the entry of these law students into the world of law, one could conclude that the applicants were generally older than usual applicants and also bore the scars of war from which they had come. The damage inflicted to a great number of these applicants by the war was obvious, and evidence of the sacrifice made.
The group assembled between classes with the usual exchange of ideas concerning the answers to the questions presented by the law professor.
Arguments were...
To continue reading
Request your trial