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Bar News - February 23, 2001 Shared Responsibilities of Law Center and the Bar By: John D. Hutson The following is an edited version of the Franklin Pierce Law Center dean's speech presented at the Bar's Midyear Membership Meeting on Jan. 26, 2001. I BELIEVE THAT the two most important professions in any society are law and education. They provide the ceiling and floor to the goodness of a society. No society, whether it is New Hampshire, the United States or the world community of nations, can get much better, or much worse, than its systems of justice or its education. No other professions can make that claim. That's why I feel so strongly about the duty and responsibility of Franklin Pierce Law Center to the state of New Hampshire, as its only law school. We are a private, independent institution with a very public responsibility to the people of this wonderful state. One of my jobs is to bridge that gap. We want to be New Hampshire's law school and bring with us our national and international reputation. We want to satisfy not only New Hampshire's legal needs, but also to represent the state, both nationally and internationally, in a way in which you will be proud. It's interesting to look back on how FPLC has been viewed by the members of the legal community, and how our image has evolved over the years. In the early years, we were seen as a strange little school founded by a Boston patent lawyer and inventor who had a devotion to intellectual property. We were then largely ignored, then later resisted, because we were graduating large numbers of lawyers seeking employment in the state. Now, I'm happy to say, we are accepted in New Hampshire as a vital part of the legal fabric of the state. I want that weave to be strong and tight. Our international reputation is superb, both in terms of how widely we are known and how highly we are regarded. This is, of course, because of our world-class intellectual property faculty and curriculum, which draw students and interest from legal educators around the world. This semester we have over 110 international students, 26 of whom are JD students. The others are in our Masters of Intellectual Property (MIP) and Master of Laws (LLM) programs. These students, several of whom are professors in their own law schools "back home, " return to their homelands with their FPLC legal education, enhancing our international reputation. Our reputation in New Hampshire depends in part on our many graduates who practice here. In addition, we are "you" in a sense that many of you here today teach as adjuncts. Our dedicated adjuncts add immeasurably to the tight weave of the state's legal fabric. You bring a wonderful currency and vibrancy to education. You hire externs and clerks, which illustrates another way in which the Bar actively participates in the heart of education. These positions offer our students the opportunity to see in practice what we are trying to teach them in class. In many respects, yours is a stronger educational experience than ours. In that regard, I should point out that the most important things we try to teach are also the hardest to teach: the core values of being a lawyer, such as integrity, honor, courage, dedication, civility, passion and compassion. These lessons are best learned in life. They are the most important, most difficult and most fragile aspects of learning. In law school they are hard to test. In practice, constant temptation presents a test every day. A senior partner or mentor can either reinforce or undermine in a moment with a raised eyebrow what we have tried to teach for three years. It is from practitioners, not from professors, that students and new lawyers will learn that there will always be another opportunity to close the big deal, but there may not be another opportunity to get their integrity back. This is a big emphasis of mine and of FPLC, but it's an area in which we need help from the Bar. It's easier to teach the Rule Against Perpetuities than core values. I believe that in a very profound way, I work for you. I welcome your suggestions or comments on these thoughts or any others you might have. I can be reached at either 228-1541 or John D. Hutson joined the Franklin Pierce Law Center as Dean last year.
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