Laura Chisolm: colleague, peer, friend.

• Author: Entin, Jonathan L.
• Position: Former Case Western Reserve University School of Law professor - Testimonial

Laura Chisolm and I joined the faculty of Case Western Reserve University School of Law at the same time. She was my oldest and one of my closest friends on the faculty. Our friendship dates back to before we officially started teaching, when Laura and Mac welcomed Carol and me to Cleveland during our house-hunting trip. For our first couple of years, Laura and I held each other's hand as we learned how to teach Property. I'll never forget our first day of teaching. We had decided to begin with Johnson v. M'Intosh, (1) an 1823 Supreme Court case in which the basic issue was who owned a large tract of Eastern Illinois. (2) One party traced his claim to the U.S. government and before that to the British crown; (3) the other traced his claim to the Illinois Indian tribe. (4) You don't have to know any law to figure out who won, (5) but the opinion addresses many significant legal issues that have continuing relevance nearly two centuries later. (6)

About an hour before class, Laura stopped by my office to tell me about her dream the night before: that she had asked her class who the plaintiff was in the Johnson case and nobody knew! We had a good laugh, then went our separate ways. Laura, having had her nightmare, knew better than to ask who the plaintiff was. I, on the other hand, did not. The student I called on to state the complex facts did well enough until, without thinking, I asked, "By the way, who was the plaintiff?." Laura was right--not one of my 120 students could identify the plaintiff. We had another good laugh after class when I told her what had happened, but, loyal friend that she was, Laura never, by word, gesture, or even arched eyebrow, said, "I told you so."

As we gained confidence, we began to discuss teaching in more sophisticated ways. Not only did we talk about Property, but we also explored topics in our other courses. Laura taught Nonprofit Organizations and Legislation, and I taught the First Amendment and Administrative Law. Her courses and mine dealt with similar questions but from different perspectives. Our teaching and our scholarship benefitted enormously from years of conversations in which we probed, challenged, and helped each other sort out such questions as what kinds of restrictions the government may put on political activities by nonprofit organizations and how courts should interpret complex and frequently ambiguous statutes.

As we began to write, we shared drafts. This was an uneven, almost an...