TRIBUTE TO JUDY LIPTON.

• Author: Hardaway, Ayesha Bell

Many would be hard-pressed to find someone closely connected to clinical legal education who does not know, or at least know of, Judy Lipton. You see, Judy has worked on a wide variety of cases, attended too many conferences to keep track of, and taught hundreds of fortunate students during her more than thirty-year career as a legal clinician. I have had the great fortune of working with Judy in three separate capacities for the last seventeen years.

JUDY THE PROFESSOR

My first stroke of luck came as a third-year law student. By some miracle, my name was drawn through the lottery system used to determine Case Western Reserve Law Clinic's enrollment. At that time, enrollment throughout the law school was high and Clinic interest was teeming; placements there were at a premium. I did not quite know all of what took place behind the fancy glass door on the ground floor of our law school, but once I found out that it involved representing real clients, I knew I had to try to be a part of it. The Criminal Clinic was my first (and likely only) choice. And so I first met Judy and Carol Turowski (1) as a student enrolled in their year-long Criminal Justice Clinic.

Judy's pedagogical approach to teaching provided a healthy foundation for her students to understand the criminal legal issues that their clients were facing. Judy, as a professor, coupled that healthy foundation with what seemed like an innate and genuine style that empowered her students to hone their skills while believing that they had what it took to provide excellent representation to their clients. It was in the Clinic that I began to truly believe that I had what it took to be a strong advocate and litigator. Judy's students were able to leave law school knowing that their first-year clinic experience put them on par with many practicing attorneys.

JUDY THE COLLEAGUE

My second stroke of luck came when the Clinic faculty and staff welcomed me with open arms as a faculty member. Judy, the colleague, still exhibited all of the wonderful attributes I had first encountered when she was my professor. She was welcoming, warm, and deliberate about making sure that I felt valued and included. Her ability to empower while redirecting students' attention was, quite frankly, masterful. And although she made it look easy, I can imagine that redirecting me had to be a handful at times. Though our relationship technically transferred to a collegial one, I still found myself learning so much...