• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

UC Hastings Scholarship Repository Hastings Alumni Publications 12-1-1977 Hastings Community Vol. XXII, No.2 (Winter 1977-78) Hastings College of the Law Alumni Association Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.uchastings.edu/alumni_mag Recommended Citation Hastings College of the Law Alumni Association, "Hastings Community Vol. XXII, No.2 (Winter 1977-78)" (1977). Hastings Alumni Publications. 54. http://repository.uchastings.edu/alumni_mag/54 This is brought to you for free and open access by UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Alumni Publications by an authorized administrator of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. 75 A Message From the Dean The University of California's Hastings ground of turbulent events. It is in large have an appreciation of the technological College of the Law has achieved its present measure the history of California and San -social-economic context in which legal eminence because of many individuals, Francisco. Those of us who are privileged institutions are shaped, and understand past and present. Its founder, Serranus to share in its present and who stand on the the responsibilities of the law as a means of Clinton Hastings, the first Chief Justice of shoulders of the giants of the past, have a providing equal justice for all. The greatest the California Supreme Court brought it deep obligation to both the present and the service that this law school can offer is to into being. He also outlined its mission: "It future to build, but to build well with provide that quality, training and insight. is our desire to defuse a knowledge of the courage and sensitivity for the future. In over 8,500 great principles of jurisprudence, not only that sense, a centennial celebration must be It is interesting to note that members of the legal profession are Hast- among those who propose to devote them- more than a mere exercise in nostalgia. It selves to the profession of the law, but also must compel a commitment to excellence ings graduates. 1978 can be a momentous in the history of the Hastings Com- all classes of society; to elevate the general -excellence and sensitivity to the needs of year standing of the Bar, and to maintain and an increasingly complex and interrelated munity, a community comprised of alum- ni, (judges, practitioners, legislators, ad- perpetuate the dignity of the Bench; for society. The men and women of the legal without this, civilized government cannot profession (educators, judges, practitioners) ministrators, civic leaders), students, faculty, exist, the rights of property, life, and play in increasingly major role in the and educational administrators. However, liberty will vanish and become an exploded average citizen's life. Hastings, as one of it can be significant only if the total theory of the past." the major university law schools in the community provides that quality of leader- nation and the oldest and largest in the ship and awareness that our society has a been This vision and commitment has state, has the obligation to provide students right to expect. It cannot operate in a shared by a legion of outstanding legal with a top-quality legal education so that vacuum. It must train and educate. It must also serve-serve the profession, the com- scholars, leaders of the judiciary and prac- they will become experts in the use of the and civic leaders munity in which it has been placed, the ticing Bar, legislators, tools of their craft, and thus achieve a high color to the history fortunate, and the unfortunate. who have added vivid level of professional competency. It also of the Law School. has the responsibility to provide the legal Never has the voice of the individual of The history of Hastings is the history of profession with promising young men and the Hastings Community been so needed in many of the California's most interesting women who can meet the needs of an the daily affairs and responsibilities of the and colorful citizens. It is a story filled with increasingly intricate and interdependent school. All of us share in that responsi- many shadings of humor, sadness, accom- society. bility. Only then can the "noble mission" plishments, with diverse characters and But more than that, Hastings also must articulated by the first Chief Justice and the personalities, and with the occasional back- assure that its graduates are sensitive to the founder of Hastings College of the Law problems of the administration of justice, become a reality for all our citizens. 1 Four Centennial Portraits mwmm John Norton Pomeroy Charles William Slack Paul Edmond Basye Marvin J. Anderson 2 John Norton Pomeroy and Charles Wil- long line of eminent Presbyterians, par- liam Slack brought to Hastings genuine sons and laymen; the puritan work-ethic John Norton academic distinction and sustained that was not at all diminished by his marriage to distinction so that in a less favorable epoch Ann Rebecca Carter of Savannah who Pomeroy that succeeded theirs, Hasting's reputation converted him to a broad-church Episco- was rightly maintained. While it is an palianism. Alas, he did not prosper in ten accepted convention that Pomeroy was the years at the bar. A merciful veil screens great creator at Hastings, Slack deserves these years: some fleeting fame in success- much more attention that he has been fully defending a murderer and a year of given. Without Slack, Pomeroy's work daunting hardship trying unsuccessfully to would probably have been undone in a make it in New York City are the glimpses season. Thanks to Slack, the Pomeroy provided. He almost epitomized Frederick System remained vital, and even after- William Maitland's barrister who would wards influential in varying degrees, until turn to scholarship while waiting for the new trends in legal education in particular client who never comes. In 1861 he went and in the law in general dictated largescale back to teaching at Kingston. Amidst the change. It remains an open question wheth- daily grind of the classroom and spurred er or not the new approaches to legal on by two more young mouths to feed, he educations were better than the old system. produced Municipal Law in 1864, which brought acclaim, an honorary LL.D. from By any contemporary reckoning John his alma mater, and an immediate invita- Norton Pomeroy (pronounced Pum-roy) tion to teach at New York University Law was one of ten top law teachers in late School. The next seven years were spent in nineteenth century America, ranking with his first experience in teaching law. His Langdell and Ames (Harvard), Theodore most eminent student there, Elihu Root, Timothy Dwight (Columbia), William Gar- later Secretary of State and the greatest diner Hammond (Iowa and Washington international lawyer America has produced, University, St. Louis), Thomas McIntyre recalled that he was unstinting of his time Cooley (Michigan), Theodore Salisbury with the handful of his students, going Woolsey (Yale), and two or three others of from dawn to dusk with them, teaching, like stature. These were the first generation talking, criticizing, arguing. His only ma- of academic teacher-scholars in the law jor scholarly production while at NYU was who were the creators of the modern the Introduction to Constitutional Law, American law school. They were all com- 1868. His intense involvement took its toll mitted to the proposition that the law was a on his health, and in 1871 he retired to "science" and must be investigated and Rochester to support himself and his fami- analyzed by the intellectually rigorous meth- ly by writing. This was a productive period, ods of the physical sciences. albeit of occasional and popular pieces and Pomeroy was distinguished from his edited texts more than of the major works equally distinguished peers in two ways. of his last years. He did write the treatise on One was the sheer bulk of his scholarship specific performance of contracts, and he and the extraordinary range and diversity probably laid the foundation in study of his later of his writings. the other was the concept- works. He had the time to read ual boldness with which he was prepared to widely and continuously. It was, though, a tackled the law. bare existence. The call to Hastings in 1878 was Gabriel's trumpet. John Norton Pomeroy was preemi- The hard years of marginal existence nently a pedagogue. Though the son of a were Pomeroy's learning years, even if they probate judge in Rochester, New York, he were not years of major scholarly produc- showed no early inclination to the law. On tion. In order to write, Pomeroy needed graduating in 1847 from Hamilton Col- the interchange of intellect, the discourse lege, where he received a Classical educa- and intercourse with minds tied to articu- tion, he spent some three years school- late tongues which can be afforded a legal mastering at Rochester and then near scholar at bar or in the classroom. Not Cincinnati. He turned to the law at the until the end of his career did Pomeroy latter place only because he hoped for a have a chance to demonstrate his real better income than teaching provided. He capacity as a counsel at bar. And it was not completed his law-office study on his re- for his forensic pyrotechnics that he won turn to Rochester, and was admitted in his fame-he read his presentation without The following copyrighted excerpts are New York in 1851. His need increased a benchward glance, in a steady (and reproduced with the permission of the when he married a former pupil in 1855, possibly hypnotic) voice. But his briefs and author.

Load more

  46

Copy Link