Williams, Steve

English

Duke Law Scholarship Repository

WILLIAMS.QUALITY.DOC 11/13/98 10:36 AM205STEVE WILLIAMSSteve Williams, former Rabinowitz law clerk, delivered the fol-lowing as a tribute at the Justice Jay A. Rabinowitz RetirementEvent, February 28, 1997.I was very honored when I was asked to speak as a representa-tive of Justice Rabinowitz’s law clerks.  But before I might beseized by an unseemly fit of pride, a person on the organizingcommittee of former clerks confided that one reason I had beenchosen was because my legal career had peaked with my clerkshipfor Justice Rabinowitz right after law school.That may have been intended as a humorous remark, but likemost humor it contained more than a grain of truth.  My clerkshipwith Justice Rabinowitz almost twenty years ago was among themost challenging, interesting, and rewarding work experiences Ihave had.But what am I to say about Justice Rabinowitz, who served asone of Alaska’s first Superior Court judges after statehood, hasbeen a Supreme Court Justice for 32 years, and Chief Justice abouta third of those years?  Clearly Alaska’s most prominent judicialfigure.  A person for whom I have tremendous respect, admiration,and affection.As his former clerks, his colleagues, and his friends can appre-ciate, I was confident that Justice Rabinowitz would be an easy,uncritical audience.  But I also knew that he was very resistant tothe idea of a traditional “retirement dinner” of rubber chicken andwar stories.  That is why this event is here at the Performing ArtsCenter and honors him largely with music.But this evening is a tribute to Jay and things must be said.I will call him Jay, not out of disrespect, but in the interest ofbrevity, fewer syllables, shorter speech.  Besides, in the Alaska le-gal community, he is one of those iconic figures who can be identi-fied by one name.  Madonna, Shaq, Elvis, Ella, Jay.So this is my tribute to Jay, my attempt to express in smallpart my appreciation, and that of my fellow clerks, both for whathe has done and who he is.I have always liked the context for the word “tribute.”  Un-surprisingly, its root is Latin for tribe, a concept with which Alas-kans are becoming reacquainted.  Its focus is on the reciprocal ob-ligations of the community and the individual.  Tribute originallyWILLIAMS.QUALITY.DOC 11/13/98  10:36 AM206 ALASKA LAW REVIEW [15:2referred to levies or taxes given to the community’s leaders.  How-ever, the word more recently came to be used in the sense of thisevening’s event: a tribute paid by the community to someone forhis contribution to the community.As we all know, Justice Rabinowitz is a very smart guy.  Butthere are a lot of smart people, even among lawyers and judges.What truly distinguishes Jay is the quality of his intellectual efforts.I recall once during my clerkship mistakenly asking Jay howhe “felt” about an issue in a case.  He upbraided me: “We don’tpractice visceral jurisprudence here.”In my experience, Justice Rabinowitz’s commitment to intel-lectual integrity, to rigorous analysis, has been complete.  He has adisciplined mind, and works very hard to truly understand casesand legal issues.  He is incapable of intellectual laziness.He also has a high degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity,and flexibility.  He has a subtle mind, interested in the nuances ofanalysis and historical context.But frankly, my favorite trait is his wonderful sense of humor.Witty, sardonic, more irreverent than one might expect.  He isgreat fun to talk, banter, and spar with.While obviously he has had an impact on all areas of Alaskalaw, perhaps his contribution has been most significant in the areaof constitutional rights and individual freedom.  That is the realmof high judicial art, the exercise by the Court of its own authorityas a restraint on other institutions in our community.  Jay well un-derstands the vulnerability of the courts to criticism for that exer-cise of power, and is keenly aware that it should be exercised onlybased on well-articulated, principled reasoning.  But, with the restof the Court, Jay has maintained a constant commitment to pro-viding strong protection for all Alaskans’ rights where required byconstitutional principles.In this regard, Jay has practiced what he preaches, showingremarkable tolerance for his clerks’ idiosyncrasies.  For instance,as some of you know, I am a chronic sartorial underachiever.Much of the time I clerked for Jay, my garb around the office wasLevi’s and casual shirts, often T-shirts or long underwear tops, de-pending on the season.  Yet the closest Jay ever came to harassingme about it was one sarcastic comment complimenting me on mywardrobe.  Otherwise, he was true to his opinion stated later in dis-sent in a case in which Homer lawyer Marty Friedman was held incontempt for appearing in court without a coat and tie, that “surelythe dignity of the judiciary rests on more substantial grounds thanthe wearing of neckties, and that judicial infringement upon thepersonal liberty of counsel to choose their mode of attire is anti-thetical to Alaska’s constitution.”WILLIAMS.QUALITY.DOC 11/13/98  10:36 AM1998] RABINOWITZ TRIBUTE 207Jay’s talents are hardly purely intellectual.  He deeply caresnot only about justice, but about his family, his clerks, and thepeople of the Alaskan community.Jackie Robinson, who broke major league baseball’s colorbarrier by signing 50 years ago today with the Brooklyn Dodgers,near where Jay grew up, said that “a life is important only in itsimpact on others.”  Probably even more important than his legalwork has been Jay’s positive effect on other people.  He has a re-markable ability to motivate, to inspire people to perform well.He seldom exhorts or engages in extended criticism, though rely-ing occasionally on cutting wit.  He truly leads by competitive ex-ample, letting us know that we should be doing our best work bydoing his best work; letting us know that we should act on principleby doing so himself.  Jay doesn’t really walk the talk; he simplywalks — or runs or skis or plays tennis.  He lets his work and con-duct speak for itself.Justice Rabinowitz has been a transformative leader wholeads people by his example of integrity and service to do betterthan they might otherwise have done, to be better than they mighthave been.Jay has always imparted — or at least attempted to impart —his enthusiasm for Alaska to his clerks.  He has been a recruitingofficer for the state’s legal community.  Many people — includingme — who came here with no real commitment to staying aftertheir clerkships, chose to stay, work, and live here, in no small partbecause of the sense of enthusiasm and possibility that Jay com-municated about Alaska.So now I would like to revert to the original meaning of trib-ute, and give some loot to our leader, Jay.  Given the artistic toneof this evening, the clerk’s committee decided to give him artworkthat reflects the aesthetic sensibilities of Interior Alaska, where Jayhas lived most of the past forty years.Justice Rabinowitz, your legal legacy is reflected in the hun-dreds of opinions that you wrote or in which you participated, andin the quality of the court system in which you have worked for 37years.  You have been an inspiration and a role model for scores oflawyers and judges.During those years, you have had more than 60 law clerks andinterns — many now judges, distinguished attorneys, law profes-sors, and public servants.  Would all those in the theater who eitherclerked or interned for Justice Rabinowitz, please stand?  In a veryreal way, each of us, and those who could not be here tonight, areyour living legacy.  Each of us has been strongly influenced,touched, and partly formed, by your powerful, brilliant example.We thank you for your extraordinary public service, your ju-dicial, intellectual, and personal leadership; your work to help cre-WILLIAMS.QUALITY.DOC 11/13/98  10:36 AM208 ALASKA LAW REVIEW [15:2ate a state court system that is one of the best in the country; andyour commitment to the principles of justice and the rights of allAlaskans.  And most of all, we thank you for giving each of us theopportunity and experience of working with you.  We wish youwell in your retirement — and hope that you will actually allowyourself to enjoy some semblance of retirement, to take some timeto travel, to read something other than briefs and bench memos,and to indulge in the pleasures of life.You’re a great justice and a great guy.  Thanks.

Tribute to Judge Rabinowitz

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Tribute to Judge Rabinowitz

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