The citizen lawyer.

• Author: Reveley, W. Taylor, III

I.

The late eighteenth century is never far from us in Williamsburg, the Colonial Capital. Think back many generations to January 1780, when legal education at William and Mary first began. (1) Creating a law school at the College was Thomas Jefferson's idea, (2) which he persuaded William and Mary's Board of Visitors to approve on December 4, 1779. (3) Jefferson also recruited his own beloved law teacher, George Wythe, to breathe life into the new school, beginning the next month. (4) Wythe and his successor St. George Tucker led legal education at William and Mary brilliantly for the next quarter century. (5)

All three of these august beings--Jefferson, Wythe, and Tucker--meant for legal training at William and Mary to produce what we now call citizen lawyers: lawyers who will use at least part of their legal training and experience to work for the common good. (6) As George Wythe put it, in words emblazoned on the base of statues standing at the Law School's main entrance: "Here we will form such characters as may be useful in the National Councils of our country." Jefferson wrote to James Madison:

Our new institution at the College has had a success which has gained it universal applause. Wythe's school is numerous. They hold weekly courts and assemblies in the capitol. The professors join in it; and the young men dispute with elegance, method and learning. This single school by throwing from time to time new hands well principled and well informed into the legislature will be of infinite value. (7) Producing citizen lawyers was William and Mary Law School's original intent, (8) It is an enduring intent at the country's oldest law school even unto the twenty-first century. (9) Against this background, it is quite seemly that a symposium on lawyers and their civic engagement convened in Williamsburg in February 2008.

II.

I approach our subject--citizen lawyers--from a number of perspectives. For almost three decades I was wholly owned by a large law firm, including nine years as its managing partner. My first year out of law school I was an assistant professor of law and, after a very long hiatus, returned to the legal academy as a dean. For many years, I have been a trustee of academic institutions and of foundations, as well as other not-for-profit institutions. I helped put together an education section of the Virginia State Bar that mates practicing lawyers, academics, and judges to pursue common concerns, high among them those of the citizen lawyer. In short, I have wrestled with the meaning of our subject and the practicalities of its pursuit from a number of relevant perspectives.

Whether we lawyers earn our bread teaching in a law school, practicing law in a firm, a corporation, a government agency, or a nonprofit, or sitting on the bench, the matter ultimately comes down, in my view, to whether being a lawyer is simply a way to make a living or also a calling. Whether a lawyer teaches, practices, or judges, is he willing to work to leave the law better than he found it? Using legal training and experience, is a lawyer willing to work to make a difference for the better in the life of the entity that pays her salary, and in the lives of her community, state, nation, and even world?

To put a practical edge on the matter, do we simply "talk the talk" of the citizen lawyer, think about it, theorize about it, and write about it, or do we actually believe in the concept and have the self-discipline to act on our belief?

III.

Let me state a conclusion that does not enjoy universal applause in the legal world. In my judgment, we lawyers have an unusually strong need to be civic-minded and to work for the public interest. We lawyers should pull our oars as public citizens with more vigor than is expected of the average citizen. (10) There are four reasons why I believe lawyers should be more committed public citizens than most other people.

A.

Reason number one hinges on the notion that our profession is, in fact, a calling as well as a living. Former Chief Justice Rehnquist used to say, "the practice of law has always been a subtle blend between a 'calling' such as the ministry, where compensation is all but disregarded, and the selling of a product, where compensation is all important." (11)

I believe the calling aspect of the legal profession is the one most important to our happiness and satisfaction as lawyers and to our pride at belonging to the profession. In my experience, most of us do want to believe that being a lawyer is a worthwhile way to use our talents and time. We want to believe that we are using our legal knowledge and skill to help individuals and institutions improve their lives, to build the economy in productive ways, and to make politics more socially useful. We want to believe that lawyers are, in fact, making a difference for the better.

A great law professor named Karl Llewellyn, now long since gone the way of all flesh, urged the calling aspect of the legal profession on his students at the University of Chicago. To quote an account written by one of his students from the early 1960s, Professor Llewellyn demanded of the class one day, "Have any of you heard of the 'handwriting on the wall' in the Book of Daniel?" (12) Per the student's account:

We studiously examined the spiral bindings of our notebooks. This was no time to risk eye contact.

"What exactly was written on that wall?" Silence, eyes down.

"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharasin!? he roared. Nervous laughter.

"What that means, brethren and sistern, is: 'You have been weighted in the balance and found wanting.' How will you measure up at the end of your legal career? When you die (as you will, you know), will you have left the law better or worse than you found it?" (13)

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