The Honorable John M. Gerrard

• Publication year: 2021

79 Nebraska L. Rev. 826. The Honorable John M. Gerrard

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The Honorable John M. Gerrard*

Foreword

This issue of the Nebraska Law Review is published in honor of Professor John M. Gradwohl. Thus, it is particularly fitting that the editors of the Review have chosen to style their tribute as a symposium on education law. It is difficult to overstate the impact Professor Gradwohl has had on the development of education law in the State of Nebraska.

As an academic who taught education law at the University of Nebraska College of Law, Professor Gradwohl has had tremendous influence in guiding the development of the law and the practice of law. He led the earliest efforts to apply the developing principles of continuing legal education to the practice of school law. He was also a driving force in creating the Council of School Attorneys, an organization of school law practitioners in Nebraska which conducts an annual seminar and holds meetings on issues vital to education law. The Council, now approaching its twenty-fifth anniversary, sponsors an annual program of exceedingly high quality which has influenced the development of other such seminars on both the state and national level.

The practice of education law in the State of Nebraska has flourished, due in no small part to Professor Gradwohl and the Council of School Attorneys. A review of the decisions of the courts of Ne-braska-particularly the Supreme Court of Nebraska-reveals marked improvements in not only school board members' and administrators' adherence to law, but also in school attorneys' practice of law, as evidenced by school law litigation.

Many of the authors of the articles contained in this Symposium are Professor Gradwohl's former students. His influence over their legal careers is not just a fond memory; it remains a real and ongoing relationship between mentor and mentees. These authors freely admit that they remain Professor Gradwohl's students-and seek his counsel on a wide variety of issues. The authors who did not attend the University of Nebraska College of Law also acknowledge Professor Gradwohl's significant influence in their professional development, as

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do I. Finally, the two fellow law professors who have submitted articles demonstrate the esteem with which Professor Gradwohl's contributions are held by his academic peers as well as by practitioners within the state.

Professor Gradwohl is noted for his candor, his honesty...