Spencer Neth.

• Author: Leatherberry, Wilbur C.
• Position: Case Western Reserve University School of Law professor - Testimonial

Professor Spencer Neth is retiring after about forty years of service to the Law School and the University. Incredible as that seems to me, I am even more amazed to think that I have been a colleague for nearly all of that time.

Spencer was a tenured member of the faculty when I arrived, and our paths did not intersect a lot in the early years. He and I taught in different fields. His focus was on commercial law and on the first-year course called Conflict Resolution. We talked sometimes about the materials he used to introduce students to legal method and to dispute resolution processes beyond or outside the legal system. He was influenced by the Hart and Sacks materials from his experience at Harvard, and I valued my experience in the Legal Method course taught by Ovid Lewis with materials from Harry Jones, Lewis's mentor at Columbia.

The computer revolution was beginning and Spencer was instrumental in having this school install one of the very first Lexis terminals in a law school. He energetically and enthusiastically participated in the computer revolution--not just with respect to computerized research, but with respect to the use of computers in our teaching and writing. Spencer spent a semester at Stanford as an IBM Law and Computer Fellow and later chaired the AALS Section on Law and Computers. No one spent more time learning to use the new technology, and, in fact, no one is more up-to-date with respect to the use of the available technology even now. When I want to know about the latest software or the latest model cell phone, there is no better source.

For some, the acquisition of the latest technology is an end in itself. For Spencer, the technology is to help him do his work getting the latest case, preparing teaching materials, keeping in touch with colleagues, and thinking about law and lawyers and their impact on worldly affairs.

Spencer has always been adaptable. When the faculty "reformed" the first-year curriculum, there was a proposal to eliminate the Conflict Resolution course. Spencer argued unsuccessfully that the subject matter of the course should continue to be included in the first year program, and he was right. When the faculty decided that Conflict Resolution would no longer be a required course in the first-year curriculum, Spencer accepted the decision.

He designed and taught a new commercial law course combining Articles 1, 2, 3, and 9 of the UCC. He was warned by many, including Professor Morris Shanker...