A Retiring Law Professor’s Advice to Students
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On the occasion of his retirement from academia, Professor John Lande of U. Missouri was asked to write an essay offering advice to the next generation of lawyers based on his experience as both a lawyer and teacher. The result, an article entitled My Last Lecture: More Unsolicited Advice for Future and Current Lawyers, is schedule for publication shortly in the Journal of Dispute Resolution. In the meantime, with the classes starting soon, you may want to consider sending this link to your students where they can download and read Professor Lande’s wonderful essay themselves. From the abstract:
I was invited to write this essay on the occasion of my retirement, following in the footsteps of my former colleague, Steve Easton, who wrote a wonderful article, My Last Lecture: Unsolicited Advice for Future and Current Lawyers. My essay supplements Steve’s article with additional advice about law school and legal practice. This article is suitable for students in many different courses, orientations, and professional development programs.
The article advises students to (1) get the most possible benefit from law school (by paying attention to what’s really important, learning to learn, and not doing dumb things), (2) understand themselves and others (by focusing on their clients, being careful about making assumptions, recognizing the importance of emotions including their own, and understanding others’ perspectives), and (3) develop good lawyering judgment and routines (by paying attention to what’s really important, considering what help clients need, developing good relationships with counterpart lawyers, preparing to resolve matters at the earliest appropriate time, being prepared to negotiate much more than they may expect, recognizing that they actually are mediating when they represent clients, being persistent and creative when dealing with problems, and being prepared to advocate hard and smart as necessary). The article concludes by encouraging students to recognize both the good and harm that they can do as lawyers and wishing them great fulfillment from helping others.
No wiser words were ever spoken.
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