| Plainly and simply! |
I was anxious and enthused on my first day of the first
semester in law school, along with 400 or so other
students in Professor Marshall's introductory "Torts"
class. The movie "Paper Chase" was fresh in everyone's
mind - law school was supposed to be tough. I worked for
Dr. Marshall one summer as an undergraduate, arranging
cards in a catalogue system the law school had. I used him
as one of my references to get admitted to law school,
knowing full well that he was great at delegating that kind
of work and probably just barely remembered me. My work
along with a few others in the law library that summer was
something like the high school work I briefly enjoyed at the
Rice Street Public Library, where I was a library helper
during summers off high school. Professor Marshall
always seemed to have a friendly and open smile
somewhere on his very serious demeanor. His long, flowing
hair was not the least in the hipster style seen a lot at
that time, but neither was his age. Overall, with his suit
and white shirt, he reminded me of a roaring proselytizer I
once hear at a tent revival; but Dr. Marshall's dignity was
higher on the scale.
He looked out and up at his auditorium audience - 400
nervous freshman law students. He lifted his arm
gradually, and his hand turned into a pointer, with a
finger longer than the hand, when as we feared, he took a
large breath, pointed directly out at the audience, and
suddenly thundered,
semester in law school, along with 400 or so other
students in Professor Marshall's introductory "Torts"
class. The movie "Paper Chase" was fresh in everyone's
mind - law school was supposed to be tough. I worked for
Dr. Marshall one summer as an undergraduate, arranging
cards in a catalogue system the law school had. I used him
as one of my references to get admitted to law school,
knowing full well that he was great at delegating that kind
of work and probably just barely remembered me. My work
along with a few others in the law library that summer was
something like the high school work I briefly enjoyed at the
Rice Street Public Library, where I was a library helper
during summers off high school. Professor Marshall
always seemed to have a friendly and open smile
somewhere on his very serious demeanor. His long, flowing
hair was not the least in the hipster style seen a lot at
that time, but neither was his age. Overall, with his suit
and white shirt, he reminded me of a roaring proselytizer I
once hear at a tent revival; but Dr. Marshall's dignity was
higher on the scale.
He looked out and up at his auditorium audience - 400
nervous freshman law students. He lifted his arm
gradually, and his hand turned into a pointer, with a
finger longer than the hand, when as we feared, he took a
large breath, pointed directly out at the audience, and
suddenly thundered,
"You!"
Everyone inhaled deeply and held a breath; I hoped he didn't mean "me." I hoped I melted in with the crowd this time, and that he didn't
recognize me as his undergraduate summer employee. Everyone hoped he meant someone else.
"Stand up, if you don't mind!"
Then, a classmate stood up, as though scripted, and Dr. Marshall started his first hypothetical, as we are prone to calling these stories.
"If I wanted to say that I am about Torts and that we are going to engage in the Socratic method of teaching and learning law through both
hypothetical and real case studies, I could go on that way."
He paused. The audience seemed to start breathing again, albeit as quietly as possible.
Dr. Marshall cleared his throat, and it could be heard at the back of the auditorium.
"But I won't say that," he explained.
"Instead, I'm going to use regular, commonplace words, because I want you to learn to speak what we're going to discuss in regular,
common words. If you can do that, and if you've got a good case - or if the case you're up against is worse than yours, at least - then, you
should win.
"So I'm going to ask you to listen to some stories, take some of them home and read up on them, and come back to class - every class - and
go through a question and answer process with me. Let's call it class discussion. We'll do this until we both feel that you've gotten
whatever you can get from these stories, which are all about what we do when we are trying to fix a wrong done by using the law of Torts.
Everyone inhaled deeply and held a breath; I hoped he didn't mean "me." I hoped I melted in with the crowd this time, and that he didn't
recognize me as his undergraduate summer employee. Everyone hoped he meant someone else.
"Stand up, if you don't mind!"
Then, a classmate stood up, as though scripted, and Dr. Marshall started his first hypothetical, as we are prone to calling these stories.
"If I wanted to say that I am about Torts and that we are going to engage in the Socratic method of teaching and learning law through both
hypothetical and real case studies, I could go on that way."
He paused. The audience seemed to start breathing again, albeit as quietly as possible.
Dr. Marshall cleared his throat, and it could be heard at the back of the auditorium.
"But I won't say that," he explained.
"Instead, I'm going to use regular, commonplace words, because I want you to learn to speak what we're going to discuss in regular,
common words. If you can do that, and if you've got a good case - or if the case you're up against is worse than yours, at least - then, you
should win.
"So I'm going to ask you to listen to some stories, take some of them home and read up on them, and come back to class - every class - and
go through a question and answer process with me. Let's call it class discussion. We'll do this until we both feel that you've gotten
whatever you can get from these stories, which are all about what we do when we are trying to fix a wrong done by using the law of Torts.
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