Foreword to the Thomas F. Lambert, Jr., symposium issue on sophisticated new tort theories.

• Author: Rustad, Michael L.
• Position: Biography

Despite the raven croaking of contemporary Cassandras that "Tort is Dead" or at least gone over the horizon, it might be closer to the truth to recall the insight of a recent commencement speaker. "I have," he said, "some good news and some bad news. First, the bad: The world is coming to an end. Now the good: Not soon. Not necessarily." Even if a prophecy of such robust hope should prove vain, it is enough to recall and cling to the craftsman's motto on the statute of Sisyphus: "One need not have hope in order to persevere." Thomas F. Lambert Jr. (2)

The future of tort law is somewhat murky in this first decade of the twenty-first century. Tort reform is President Bush's number one domestic priority, and his goal is to nationalize tort law by placing federal limits on products liability and medical malpractice remedies. In Texas, then Governor-elect George W. Bush spearheaded a tort reform bill "to prevent frivolous and junk lawsuits," which included a $200,000 cap on punitive damages. (3) As I write this Foreword to the Thomas F. Lambert, Jr., Symposium issue, a coalition of tort reformers is again using the specter of a medical liability crisis to gain popular support for limitations on remedies for ordinary Americans. The U.S. Senate is considering federalizing medical liability by imposing an aggregate cap of $250,000 on non-pecuniary damages for the victims of nursing home negligence, abuse and mistreatment. (4)

As co-advisor of the Journal of High Technology Law, I am pleased that the editorial board has chosen to dedicate this special issue on Sophisticated New Tort Theories to the memory of my teacher and friend, Thomas F. Lambert, Jr. Professor Lambert taught at Suffolk University Law School from 1972 until his death, in 1999. Suffolk University Law School is justifiably proud of the legacy of Tom Lambert, who was one of this country's leading tort scholars and a steadfast advocate for strong civil law remedies. Tom Lambert wrote extensively about the groundless attacks on America's tort system, arguing that the "tort deformers" routinely constructed an artificial civil justice crisis to mislead the public. Professor Lambert's mission was to counter the full-scale, wide ranging attack on consumer rights.

The Lambert Conference is a scholarly forum that brings together nationally prominent law professors, practitioners, and jurists to consider the impact of tort law on the legal system and society. This issue of the Journal of High Technology Law is the byproduct of the Thomas F. Lambert, Jr., Symposium on Sophisticated Tort Theories held at Suffolk University Law School on October 29, 2004. At the 2004 Conference, nationally known tort scholars, jurists, and practitioners examined the best available research on the future of tort law.

The Lambert Symposium would not be possible without the steadfast support of Paul Sugarman, the former dean of Suffolk University Law School. Tom Lambert considered Paul to be his best student as well as the spiritual dean of the Massachusetts' trial bar. I would also like to acknowledge the steadfast support of Suffolk University Law School's current dean, Robert Smith, who supported this conference. Both of these leaders of Massachusetts' legal community recognize that Professor Lambert's scholarship has a continuing vitality for shaping the path of twenty-first century tort law.

To understand Tom Lambert's lasting contribution to American tort law, it is necessary to know a little about his life in the law. (5) Tom was the first graduate of UCLA to be awarded a Rhodes scholarship. He received a B.A. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University in 1939. After his legal studies in England, he was awarded a Sterling Fellowship for graduate law study at Yale University. While Tom was studying for the California Bar, he began teaching at Stetson University Law School in 1940. A year later, Tom Lambert, at age twenty-six, was chosen to be Dean of Stetson Law School, making him the youngest dean in the history of American legal education.

In 1942, Tom went to Washington, D.C., where he taught in the Columbia School of Military Government, a program designed to train people to administer occupied enemy territories. He then served as a Navy Military Affairs Officer working in liberated Europe. After the end of World War II, he was appointed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson to help prosecute the former leaders of Nazi Germany in the Nuremberg Trials. At age 30, despite being the youngest attorney on Justice Jackson's staff, Tom was chosen to prosecute the most powerful Nazi henchman other than Hitler, Martin Bormann. The Nazi strategist was head of the Party Chancellery and the Fuhrer's private secretary. Lambert prepared his case based upon evidence that Bormann had planned crimes against humanity that were carried out by the German High Command, the Gestapo, the Storm Troops, and the S.S. (Schutz-Staffel).

After a brief post-World War II stint teaching at New York University, Tom Lambert joined the faculty of Boston University School of Law, where he taught torts, conflicts of laws, trial advocacy, and legal history, until 1955. During the 1950's, Professor Lambert played a key role in the growth of the National Association of Claimants' Compensation Attorneys (NACCA), which later evolved into the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA). When Professor Lambert joined the nascent trial lawyers' association, NACCA was still a local organization with a limited vision. The stump speeches that Professor Lambert delivered to lawyers' groups in all fifty states greatly increased the prestige of trial lawyers.

The first key step toward NACCA's professionalization was the hiring of retired Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound to head the organization. NACCA eventually purchased Roscoe Pound's house on Church Street in Cambridge, which became NACCA's national headquarters. Roscoe Pound, the Dean...