The Law School community honored the past, reveled in the present, and committed to the Campaign for the future.
Stars were out – literally and figuratively – at Celebration ’95. Held October 12 to 14, the gathering constituted the biggest series of events at Stanford Law School since the dedication of Crown Quad 1975.
Present were two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, several CEOs and business magnates, the president of the San Francisco 49ers, the present and two previous presidents of the University, the present and four former deans of the School, eminent professors from the School and elsewhere, and 1,132 alumni and well-wishers from all over the country.
This impressive turnout was occasioned by a confluence of trends and events. There was reasons to celebrate Stanford Law School’s rapid rise to eminence in the century since the University offered its first course in law (STANFORD LAWYER, Fall 1993). Equally remarkable have been the achievements of its alumni in law, government, and other areas. These made possible a set of fascinating panels, of which more below. Next, there was the School’s annual Reunion Weekend, this year for the classes ending in 5 and 0. Interest in the Celebration ’95 events helped bring reunion attendance to a high of 217 (440 including significant others) and attracted a large contingent of non-reunion-year alums and friends as well.
Finally, there was the official kickoff of the Campaign for Stanford Law School. The outgrowth of a far-reaching deliberative process by representatives of all segments of the Law School community, the $50-million Campaign for Stanford Law School was formally announced to the world at an all-alumni luncheon on October 13. Surrounding this event were special programs for donors and volunteers.
A photo album of this extraordinary weekend follows, but suffice it to say that the interest and commitment shown by alumni and friends of the School bodes well for the success of the Campaign and for Stanford’s continued leadership into the 21st century.
Informed Disclosure
Reunions & Parties
Campaign Kickoff
Words to Mark…
Key excerpts from speeches and talks at the gala launching of the Campaign for Stanford Law School
Welcome to Stanford Law School’s Celebration ’95. It is indeed a celebration- and somewhat like a graduation. We’re celebrating the past accomplishments of this law school, an enormously powerful faculty, a really bright and challenging student body, and an alumni group having an impact globally and worth a celebration all by itself. But as with a graduation, we are celebrating a beginning-the beginning of a campaign for Stanford Law School. The faculty will be stronger; the student body will be smarter; and the graduates of the school will have even greater impact. Tonight is the beginning of that process. It’s an exciting time.
-Robert A. Keller ’58, chair (with Lisa Keller) of Celebration ’95
With the kickoff of the Campaign for Stanford Law School, we are launching an enterprise that I am confident will significantly strengthen the ability of this great school to serve our society and to educate future generations of leaders. . There are times when we need to step up to help a friend, and this is one of those times. This law school has been a good friend to each one of us. The friendship is seen most clearly in the faculty who have changed our lives and enriched our careers. I would not have had the life I have had-the challenges, the opportunities, the associations, the experiences-were it not for Dean Spaeth and Professors Baxter and Franklin and Hurlbut, Mann, Meyers, Packer, Sher, Sneed, and Zimmerman. I know each of you has your own list of faculty members who affected your lives as they affected mine. These wonderful friends, this community, now need our help to remain competitive; to continue to be able to offer opportunity to everyone irrespective of family wealth; and equally important, to seize the opportunities to lead the nation in teaching, research and innovation.
-James C. Gaither ’64, Campaign Chair
I do believe that Stanford is matchless as the most comprehensive private university in the country, and probably the world, … including the Law School with its emphasis on both theory and practice. We need this combination more than ever. Many aspects of our legal system have become completely unmanageable. It will just not do to tinker incrementally. Our law school needs the best faculty and the best students to worry about solutions that will change the system….
The most important part of the Law School’s campaign goals is to have the resources to recruit and maintain a preeminent faculty. When I came from Chicago and looked at faculty compensation, I realized that Stanford Law School needed to do better. The School’s continued excellence needs the same commitment from alumni and friends that its competitors have been able to count on.
-Gerhard Casper, President, Stanford University and Professor, Stanford Law School
Historic Gift From Deane F. Johnson ’42
As we approached this evening, one of our most distinguished graduates informed us of his plan to make the largest gift in the history of the School-a $12-million gift of real property into a charitable remainder trust. That gift will over time create a large endowment, the income from which can be used by the Dean to meet the most pressing needs of the School. This is the kind of gift that should give all of us confidence that we can succeed and it should inspire us to work as hard as we can to bring about that success just as soon as we can.
-James C. Gaither
I first met Deane Johnson when he interviewed me for a scholarship. I’m sure all of you have had the experience- when you meet someone who has an overwhelming impact on you of thinking, “I wish I could be like that.” I got the scholarship, and Deane went on to become one of the most respected entertainment lawyers in the nation, a counselor to the great names of the entertainment industry, a managing partner of O’Melveny & Myers, and one of the top and most trusted executives in what is now Time-Warner. But even after he rose to the heights of his profession, Deane always kept that personal warmth and sense of humor that is so special and, r think, must hark back to California and the fact that he had to work his way through school. He never, I think, forgot where he came from. So, Deane, we want to honor you for your generosity to Stanford over these many years, as well as for your spectacular contribution to this campaign. But we also want to honor you for the qualities of personal character and professional competence that are the embodiment of the ideal of the Stanford lawyer.
– Victor Palmieri ’54, Member, Campaign Steering Committee
Huddleson Professorship From Cooley Godward
I am pleased to announce that Cooley Godward Castro Huddleson & Tatum and other friends and admirers of Ed Huddleson have created an endowed professorship in memory of their late beloved partner. The endowment will enable us to begin to rebuild the faculty, and the chair will link one of the Bay Area’s and nation’s great law firms with a distinguished member of our faculty- an honor that any of my colleagues would hold dear. This is the first chair created by a law firm in the history of Stanford University and the first at this level anywhere in the Western United States. The Edwin E. Huddleson Professorship symbolizes the close connection between this School and the high technology, legal and business communities- a connection that will only grow over the years. While Jim Gaither, Steve Neal, Brad Jeffries, Craig Dauchy and their colleagues are justly proud that Cooley has come first, they share my hope that this gift will serve as an example for other firms.
-Paul Brest, Richard E. Lang Professor and Dean of the School of Law
Needs and Goals
Initially, I and the faculty believed that we could accomplish our educational goals largely by reducing overhead and using existing resources efficiently. But having done this-and even having made the error of cutting too deeply into administrative support- it became evident that only the infusion of new resources could maintain the School’s traditions of excellence as we prepared to meet new challenges. During the past two years, we tested the School’s academic plans and fiscal needs with broadening groups of friends and alumni. Literally to a person, they believed that the School’s greatest strength, and the source of its excellence, lay in its faculty. And they understood that this most precious resource was at risk because of the differential between Stanford faculty salaries and those at other law schools. We also found widespread agreement that a Stanford education should be available to students from a broad range of backgrounds and intent on pursuing a wide variety of careers….
As we enter the challenging years ahead, I give you my solemn commitment-and that of the faculty-that we shall justify the confidence you have shown in us and this wonderful institution. Let us join in a toast: May the success of this Campaign ensure the continued excellence of Stanford Law School, and its leadership of our profession and the society it serves, for the next century.
-Dean Brest
The Way we Were
I’m happy I was here at the beginning of what I still think of as a golden era at Stanford Law School, because it was an era that really launched Stanford on the path to becoming a preeminent institution in the United States and farther afield. And of course the chief reason for that was Carl Spaeth. Carl brought a great breath of fresh air and innovation and new spirit and ambition for the school.
-Phil Caldwell Neal, former professor
There were six women in my class. I can’t say that it made much difference- except for the property course taught by Moffat Hancock, and for getting a job. Professor Hancock kept a seating chart where he had marked each of the women in the class with a big red dot. When one time he called on one by accident, he quickly apologized and moved on to one of the men in the class! In fact, Brooksley Born, one of the six, became the first woman to be number one in her class and the first to be president of Stanford Law Review.
-Han. Pamela Rymer ’64
My first encounter with [then Dean] Charlie Meyers was in what at other schools or with other people might be a kind of sensitivity session in which serious student concerns are raised and are sensitively dealt with by faculty and administrators. I, myself, a little over-sensitized from years in an earlier academic environment, would be just as happy to hear some straight stuff. Dean Meyers was asked, “How would you recommend handling the pass/fail election option?” Answer: “Real men don’t take courses pass/fail!”
-Robert Weisberg, Professor of Law and Vice Provost of Stanford University
Nowhere in the United States today is there a more distinguished faculty of constitutional law than at Stanford. President Casper, Professor Gunther, Dean Brest, Dean Ely, Professor Cohen, and Professor Grey-I learned constitutional law from their books and articles, and there’s something dreamlike about now being their colleague. The constitutional law faculty, though, is just the beginning. Every field at Stanford is notably strong.
-Kathleen Sullivan, Professor of Law
A Helping Profession
If there is a single word that underlies our vision of the profession, it is “service”- service to our society as counselors, problem solvers, negotiators, and advocates; service as legislators, policymakers, and judges. It is easy these days to forget that the practice of law is a noble calling. As much of the world is learning, the rule of law is the bedrock of a constitutional democracy. It is the essential condition for individual flourishing and for national and global economic development. Our profession has been entrusted with the care, nurturing, and development of the legal system….
There are important roles for graduates to play, in encouraging the best students to come to Stanford, sharing experiences with current students and mentoring them, strengthening our alumni networks, and representing the School to the world at large. But let me be straightforward: the School’s need for financial support is as great as any of these. The volunteer activities I mentioned can only be in support of a fiscally sound institution. And the fact is that graduates of Stanford’s peer institutions support their schools in greater numbers and at higher levels than do our graduates. This School’s ability to hold true to its mission and maintain its enviable stature ultimately depends on a much higher level of financial support from its alumni. It’s that simple.
-Dean Brest.