Dean’s Message

World events of the day are powerful reminders of the importance of the rule of law to a civil and prosperous society. Violence and inhumanity prevail in many regions of the world that are home to failed and failing nation states. The absence or decay of a trustworthy legal system is a signal characteristic of such failures. This has been true throughout the history of mankind.

It is no surprise that when civil society is under attack, lawyers are also under attack. We see that today, just as Shakespeare did more than four centuries ago in his play Henry VI, part II. The character Jack the Butcher’s famous line, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers,” expressed his gang’s traitorous interest in achieving a villain’s paradise; the lawyers were in the way.

For more than a century, American law schools have educated and trained the lawyers and judges whose devotion to the rule of law has sustained and nurtured the civil liberties and prosperity which we enjoy today. Suffice it to say, the American law school has an essential and quite serious responsibility.

At Saint Louis University we have exercised that responsibility in good fashion for many decades, and we can claim significant “firsts” in legal education. Law was first taught in our predecessor institution in 1843—the first instruction in the law to take place west of the Mississippi River. One hundred years ago women first enrolled in the Institute of Law at Saint Louis University, setting an example for American universities and the legal profession; today, 50 percent of our graduates are women. Currently, more than 20 percent of those admitted to the bar in Missouri are graduates of Saint Louis University. We also provide a healthy percentage of new lawyers admitted to practice in Illinois each year. Washington D.C. is home to the third largest number of our graduates, after St. Louis and Chicago. Saint Louis law graduates are indeed making a difference both at home and throughout the nation.

The current strength of the School of Law is a function of the personal investment of many generations of faculty, staff and alumni. It is also a function of the strong support of our president, Father Lawrence Biondi. We are at a crossroads today. We must seize the moment, continue our progress, and build upon the investments of the past. That is the only path to take if we are to be true to the historic mission of Saint Louis University and to the legacy of those who have helped build the law school into what it is today.

In the last issue of the Saint Louis Brief you learned of our plans to enhance and enlarge the physical space that houses the School of Law. This will be the natural and essential complement to the University’s investment in the law school in recent years. With an outstanding faculty, a talented student body, and a first-rate academic program, the campaign to create the New School of Law at Saint Louis University will secure the law school’s historic role of providing fine lawyers —“men and women for others”—to support our democratic society.

But this campaign is about more than the new building. It is about envisioning the great, positive impact our future graduates will have on our communities, and acting now to turn that vision into reality. With this campaign, we aren’t planning just for tomorrow—we are planning for the next century of the School of Law.

Thank you for your support. You truly make the difference. We will be steadfast in our work to assure that the value of your degree improves with each passing year. May the year 2008 be one of health and happiness for you.

Sincerely yours,

Jeffrey E. Lewis
Dean and Professor of Law