Professor Morris Shanker.

• Author: Jensen, Erik M.
• Position: Tribute to Professor Morris Shanker - Testimonial

Morry Shanker began teaching at the Western Reserve Law School shortly after the creation of the Western Reserve. In fact, had Moses Cleaveland not elbowed his way to the front of the boat in 1795, Professor Shanker would have been the first surveyor to step onto the banks of the Cuyahoga. If that had happened, the house band at Severance Hall might be known today as the Shanker Orchestra.

Just kidding, of course, but it does seem as though Morry, a native Clevelander, has been a central part of this school forever. (1) (I have been here for twenty-seven years, Morry was a grizzled veteran when I arrived, and he is still grizzling.) Generations of students and faculty have benefited from his knowledge, erudition, and warmth. I certainly have. His retirement is a sad event for me personally, and for the law school too (although, as I will discuss later, we hope this is only a transition).

One loss to the school from Morry's retirement is scholarship. Morry is one of the foremost authorities on bankruptcy and commercial law in the nation--and the world. He has been a visiting professor at some of America's greatest universities, like Michigan and Berkeley, and he has crossed the ocean too (to the University of London). He has published widely and well, in top journals. (2) Wherever a Shanker article is published, it is a tour de force.

Students will definitely lose with Morry's retirement. His classes have always been among the school's most significant and most popular. Morry knows more than anyone else about so many subjects--don't get him started on the Statute of Frauds if you have a plane to catch! And he conveys that knowledge with conviction and enthusiasm. I have heard it said that, after taking a Shanker class, students have learned the right way, the wrong way, and the Shanker way to interpret the Uniform Commercial Code.

All of us in Gund Hall will lose the pleasure of Morry's forceful personality on a daily basis. I know about Morry's forcefulness from experience. I have argued with him about statutory interpretation, the flat tax, the Equal Protection Clause, outfielders' throwing arms (should they bounce their throws into home plate or not?), the merits of twentieth-century composer Alban Berg, (3) and almost everything else imaginable (and some that isn't). When he disagrees with me, Morry is wrong, of course, but his wrongheadedness makes the arguments stimulating, and, notwithstanding the occasional psychic bruise, great fun...