Vol. 32, No. 3, 5. ETHICALLY SPEAKING Nelson Mandela: A Man and a Lawyer to Admire and Emulate.

• Author: By John M. Burman

Wyoming Bar Journal

2009.

Vol. 32, No. 3, 5.

ETHICALLY SPEAKING Nelson Mandela: A Man and a Lawyer to Admire and Emulate

Wyoming LawyerIssue: June, 2009Ethically Speaking - Nelson Mandela: A Man and a Lawyer to Admire and EmulateBy John M. Burman A few months ago, Wyoming Supreme Court Justice William U. Hill spoke to my Professional Responsibility class. He read excerpts from To Kill A Mockingbird. Both the excerpts and Justice Hill were inspiring. It is hard to imagine a lawyer who is a better role model than Atticus Finch, though there are those who find him less than the virtuous man and exemplary lawyer most of us admire. As I thought about Atticus Finch, however, I began to wonder if there are any "real" lawyers, rather than a fictional one, to admire and emulate.

A number of lawyers and judges came quickly to mind; all of whom are Wyoming lawyers. While I don't want to diminish them, or this wonderful state, I began to ponder if there are national or international figures to admire. That is when the going got tough.

At the national level, we have a lawyer as President, though it seems a bit early to pass judgment on him. The last two lawyer Presidents, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon, managed to disgrace the office and besmirch the legal profession along the way (President Clinton was suspended from practice for five years, which is essentially the same as being disbarred (a disbarred lawyer in Wyoming may apply for reinstatement after five years; so, too, a lawyer suspended for more than six months must apply for reinstatement), while President Nixon was disbarred.) One has to go back to Franklin Roosevelt to find a lawyer President who served with dignity and honor. And one has to go clear back to Abraham Lincoln to find a real lawyer; one, that is, who practiced for a substantial period of time and who was and is acknowledged to have been "an excellent trial lawyer."

At the state level, things have gone much better. Since 1960, eight men have served as governors of Wyoming. Of them, five were, or are, lawyers, including the current one: J. J. Hickey, Stan Hathaway, Ed Herschler, Mike Sullivan, and Dave Freudenthal. All of them had distinguished legal careers before serving as Governor, afterwards, or both. All brought honor both to the office of Governor and the legal profession. Other outstanding Wyoming lawyers have served the state, and the nation, by holding federal offices. Teno Roncalio and Alan Simpson come immediately to mind. While it was tempting to write about one or more of these Wyomingites, I happened upon a lawyer who had sort of slipped my mind. A man who is, arguably, the greatest person alive, as well as a lawyer--Nelson Mandela.

Mandela came to my attention quite by accident. My brother had given me Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, on CD. (I often exercise by riding a stationary bike. As I quickly get bored by riding and not moving, I have found that listening to books makes the time go quickly. An added benefit is that few law or law-related books are available in audio format, meaning that I "have" to listen to books on other topics). As fate would have it, I began to listen to Mandela's autobiography, read by Danny Glover, while I was searching for a lawyer about whom to write-a lawyer that belongs on a pedestal, not just for being an excellent lawyer, but for how he led his personal and professional lives.

I must confess to great ignorance about Mandela, his country of South Africa, and the astonishing struggle to end apartheid in which he was a primary figure. While I had been dimly aware that Mandela had been in prison, that he had been released, that apartheid had ended, that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, that he had served as the first black President of South Africa, and that Mandela is a lawyer, that was about it. I had no conception of the magnitude of the struggle or the enormous grace and dignity that Mandela has shown all, including those who imprisoned him, often under extremely harsh conditions, for 27 years.

As a lawyer, a leader, and a person, Mandela is an intriguing study. On the one hand, he was a leading exponent of the African National Congress's (ANC) move from five decades of non-violence to a policy of deadly violence (while the sabotage of government installations was not aimed at people, death in war, Mandela says, "is inevitable," and a person was accidentally killed during the first sabotage attack). He was the founder of the MK, the military wing of the ANC that embarked on a campaign of sabotage, and was preparing to move to guerilla warfare. (Mandela asserts that the violence was simply a reasonable response to the violence of the white South African government, which used deadly force to enforce its apartheid regime,8 such as the killing of 69 unarmed protesters (mostly shot in the back as they attempted to flee the gunfire), including many women and children, at the infamous Sharpeville massacre in 19609). It is, says Mandela, the oppressor who dictates the nature of a struggle, not the oppressed. Violence was, therefore, simply a form of legitimate "self-defense."

On the other hand, before, during, and after his imprisonment, Mandela has consistently been astonishingly gracious in his dealings with everyone. And while none of us is likely to reach the stature of Nelson Mandela, or embrace violence as a justified means to a great good, he displayed, under extreme conditions, traits to which we can all aspire in our everyday lives as lawyers and as human beings-traits which we can admire and emulate (without having to confront and try to answer the...