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CHAPTER V

Yale Law School

MY THREE YEARS at Yale Law School changed my life. I know that is a strong statement, but it is true. First of all, Marilyn and I were newly married, looking for our first “home,” meeting scores of new people, and beginning our married life in a part of the country that neither one of us had ever even visited.

Beyond that, I was about to become part of the first-year class that included the smartest people I had ever known. They had all been top students at their undergraduate schools, and I quickly realized that the competition would be strong. Indeed, in my very first class, I learned that the fellow on my left had been first in his class at Yale College, and the fellow on my right had been tops in his class at Notre Dame. When I got home that night, I told Marilyn this and then said, “Don’t unpack our stuff yet! I’m not sure how long we’ll be here!” I was also exposed to a covey of professors who were national and international scholars of superb reputations and records.

Our political views also were about to be challenged. Both of us had come from small Midwestern towns and conservative families. Now we became part of a community of liberal thinkers from big-city backgrounds. At first this was a little unsettling, but it probably did more to mold our thinking and teach us respect for other people’s views than we had ever imagined. However, I never lost the fundamental ideas and influences of my upbringing. Indeed, one of the most exciting things I was involved in was the formation of the Conservative Society of the Yale Law School. We wanted to remind our classmates that there was a philosophy different from theirs and that the Yale Law School needed to understand and entertain some of these thoughts and ideas. The experience was great fun, partly because it infuriated many of our liberal friends. We were thrilled to attract five or six well-known conservative figures to the law school to make speeches. Our kick-off speaker was William F. Buckley, Jr., who had just stirred things up in the Yale community for publishing his controversial book God and Man at Yale. I had the great privilege and fun of having dinner with Buckley after his speech and being absolutely astonished at his ability to communicate his views. I hope that the Conservative Society, in some form, continues at the law school to this day. If it doesn’t, it should.

Meanwhile, Marilyn and I were settling in, making friends (primarily with the other married couples), and enjoying immensely living in New Haven. For example, many of the plays and musicals that were headed for Broadway tried out in the Schubert Theater in New Haven. We bought third-balcony seats for practically nothing (binoculars were a must) and saw an incredible array of shows while we were in New Haven. Some of them went on to be great Broadway hits and others were never heard from again.

I HAD MANY memorable experiences during my academic career at Yale—such as the time I was running late for a final exam in property law and forgot to bring the course textbook with me. This may seem trivial, except that it was an open-book exam! I managed to survive by borrowing a book from a student who had taken the exam the day before.

But if I had to pick one episode as the most memorable of my law school years, it would probably be my involvement in the Moot Court finals. Moot Court was a program in which every student argued cases in an elimination process that ultimately led to four students surviving and arguing before a very distinguished panel of judges in the “finals.” I was fortunate to be in that group of four, and we argued before three judges—a U.S. Supreme Court Justice (Tom Clark), the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, and Bruce Bromley, an outstanding trial lawyer from one of the large New York City law firms.

My colleagues were extraordinary. My partner was a fellow named Gordon Spivack, one of the most intelligent human beings I have ever known. He went on to be a significant figure in the Anti-Trust Division of the Department of Justice. Our opponents were two equally impressive classmates—Charlie Haight, who went on to become a U.S. Circuit Court Judge and Bill Dempsey, a standout speaker and debater who had led his class at Notre Dame, later clerked for Earl Warren, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and had a very distinguished legal career. I was excited but extremely nervous. My mother and dad came from Ohio to watch the argument, and I worked extremely hard to prepare. Although I was intellectually ready, physically I was struggling. I had done a lot of public speaking, but I had never done anything quite like this, and I must confess that I was intimidated by the quality of the three-judge panel and by my opponents. Though I have never admitted it publicly, I spent a half hour or more before we left home soaking in a tub of hot water to attempt to calm my frazzled nerves. Marilyn of course was supportive and helpful and continued to reassure me that I would not make an idiot of myself.

To make a long story short, everything went very well. Once into the arguments, the nerves went away, and the “thrill of the game” made it a very memorable evening. In the final judging, Bill Dempsey was recognized as the best, and I came in second. Although I have never been thrilled when coming in second, in this case I had no qualms or reservations. Bill Dempsey was a fantastic speaker and debater and deserved the honor. I felt privileged to snuggle up to him in second place. Bill remains a dear friend, and I admire him as much today as I did then.

As my third year began to wind down, all of my thoughts turned to getting a job. Representatives of firms from all over the country came to the law school, and we students signed up for interviews with those firms in which we had an interest. Although I interviewed with several big-city firms, I knew that I really wanted to return to Ohio. Both my parents and Marilyn’s were living, and we had many, many friends in the area. This turned out to be easier for me than I thought it might be because I got a job offer from the highly respected Cincinnati firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister, and, upon graduation, we headed back to Ohio.

In the Yale Law School library.