Henry King remembered.

• Author: Picker, Sidney, Jr.
• Position: A Tribute to Henry King - Testimonial

In 1969, I was brought to Cleveland and Case Western Reserve Law School in Cleveland, Ohio, to be its first full-time faculty member offering courses in the international law area. At the time the subject area was viewed by many (including the occasional colleague) as cosmopolitan fluff ranking somewhere between the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. Hence, like the motto of my college alma mater, Dartmouth, "Vox Clamantis in Deserto," I felt in that first year like a voice crying in the wilderness.

Then along came Henry. Henry King at the time was the International Corporate Counsel at TRW, which was headquartered in Cleveland. He was one of the few people I met that year who not only believed in the Tooth Fairy, he gave it teeth. Henry had practiced it in the public sphere (his extraordinary and well-documented experiences at Nuremberg following World War II) as well as in the private international business sector. He had already served as Chair of the ABA's prestigious International Law Section, no mean feat. In those early days, Henry was therefore one of the few people in Cleveland to whom I could turn when I felt the need for shoulder-cry sessions, and more substantive discussion and feedback on international law and international trade issues.

Indeed, buttressed by the fact that the Cleveland home turf law school had finally committed a faculty position to international law, he felt it was time Cleveland had a practicing international bar association as well. Taking the lead, he organized the "Greater Cleveland International Lawyers Group," known now by its unpronounceable initials, "GCILG." When Henry issued the call for its first meeting, we wondered if anyone would come. To our surprise, out of the closets they poured. Most were corporate or law firm transnational practitioners who till then had no outlet, no forum to discuss or exchange views on international and related cross-border issues, and each thinking he/she was his/her own "vox clamantis in deserto." To this day, anyone who attends this now-thriving Cleveland institution knows full well how Henry, with gravel-tinged velvet voice hitched to steel determination, coaxed speakers to Cleveland from around the globe, and then rounded up the usual suspects (his local audiences) to hear them, always to the mutual satisfaction of both. More important, he made international law respectable and provided a "connectedness" network for northern Ohio lawyers dealing with transnational...