Mearns, Edward A., Jr.

English

Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Case Western Reserve Law ReviewVolume 32 | Issue 11981A Tribute to Dean Lindsey CowenEdward A. Mearns Jr.Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrevThis Tribute is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons.It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Law Review by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School ofLaw Scholarly Commons.Recommended CitationEdward A. Mearns Jr., A Tribute to Dean Lindsey Cowen, 32(1) Case W. Res. L. Rev. iv (1981)Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrev/vol32/iss1/6A Tribute to Dean Lindsey CowenIN the fall of 1955, I entered the University of Virginia LawSchool. At that time, Virginia believed that first-year coursesshould be given by its best teachers. The theory was that law wasself-taught. If you gave beginning students a good learning expe-rience, then when they became second and third-year students andlawyers they would be able to learn on their own.In the first-year program, Hardy Dillard taught Contracts. Aphilosopher and brilliant lecturer (in other times, he would havebeen called an "orator"), he was to be Dean of the Law Schooland later would sit on the World Court. Charles Gregory taughtTorts. Recently come from the University of Chicago, he was acreative scholar and the author of the labor law text and our tortscasebook. Emerson Spies taught Property. A dynamic, classroomautocrat, a Rhodes Scholar, he would be Virginia's Dean in themid-70's. Charles Woltz taught Criminal Law. Quiet, demand-ing, a combination of tough mind and courtly manners, he was theparadigm Virginia lawyer. For most of his career, he was the Re-porter for the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. And, Lind-sey Cowen taught Civil Procedure. Young, energetic, he hadmastery of both details and the big picture in this our most diffi-cult course. He had been at the head of his class, Editor-in-Chiefof the Law Review, and in private practice in Ohio for severalyears. He had returned to Virginia to be a professor and theSchool's Associate Dean. We thought our first-year teachers werea remarkable group. Looking back, I do not believe we weremore generous in our judgments than students are today.After I graduated, I joined the Virginia law faculty. LindseyCowen, who had been my teacher, became a colleague and friend.He left Virginia in 1964 to become Dean at Georgia. From Geor-gia he came to Case Western Reserve University Law School,where he has been our Dean for the past ten years. Now, as heleaves the Dean's office at the Law School to spend more time inthe classroom, it seems the right occasion to share my thoughtsabout Lindsey Cowen. I want to tell you what I see, what I thinkabout when I view the public side of this very private person.As a student, I remember seeing him as the Associate Dean,the schedule arranger, the administrative doer and fixer. In deal-ing with students "in difficulty," he balanced rules with discretion.He kept one step back from showing his personal feelings aboutthe "problem children." He was never judgmental when he dealtwith us; no favorites, no good guys or bad guys. I do not remem-bers any of us sensing that his decisions were calculated to meetwith our approval, or anyone's approval for that matter. We didthink that he could smile a bit more. But this was Virginia andthe fifties, and formality-no, civility-was very important then inlegal education.After becoming a member of the law faculty, I grew closer toLindsey Cowen. He displayed qualities of character and mindthat had not been so easy to appreciate when I had been a student.The distance between teacher and student had been greater than Ihad imagined. He was extremely bright; more intellectual than Ihad supposed. His command of the rules of law was extraordi-nary, his recall and swift application of those rules was to be en-vied. But the quickness, the practical turn of mind was moreevident in faculty gatherings. Respecting his abilities and judg-ment, his colleagues gave him considerable authority over a widerange of matters involving curriculum, students, faculty status,and money.He understood his colleagues' interests and represented themwell, sometimes at personal cost. There was that critical time whenthe Law School at Virginia was trying to improve its faculty salarypicture. The group who controlled its alumni Foundation hadadopted a resolution promising financial support for salary in-creases from the Foundation's funds. Subsequently, the Univer-sity, on its part, declined to provide an equal increase for salaries,although earlier it had hinted it might match the alumni's support.When the alumni group learned of the University's decision, itrescinded its resolution. Some on the law faculty construed this asa breach of trust. However, to argue the matter to the alumniseemed impractical, a firm decision not to increase faculty salarieshaving been made. The "safer" course was to let the issue lie.Surely there was personal risk to anyone who suggested to. astrong-minded, influential group of Virginiia lawyer alumni thattheir conduct could be viewed as lacking in integrity. LindseyCowen, the Associate Dean, courteously, but forcefully, presentedthe faculty's position. I distinctly recall that although most facultymembers supported his position, it was a small group that did so"out loud."That it cost him much seems certain. Long after he had de-parted the law school, we heard the stories of "that young deanwith the temerity to affront the alumni" by holding a mirror totheir conduct. I suspect, that once having decided it was right forthe alumni to be reminded of their "retreat," "that young dean"did not stop to consider whether there was a safer course to take.If he did, we saw no sign of it.When he went to the University of Georgia as its law Dean,this side to Lindsey Cowen's character, this quality of principleddirectness, became more evident. The Georgia Law School hadbeen reduced to a handful of teachers and students. He helpedrebuild the school, attracting talented, dedicated faculty and stu-dents, and restoring its prestige. He gathered the support ofalumni and the state's governors and legislators, delivering on hispromise to build a school of which all could be proud.The brief recounting tends to conceal what is significant aboutthis success story. During the mid and late 1960's, Georgia had itscivil rights problems. In Athens, where the law school was lo-cated, blacks could expect very little by way of legal assistancefrom the local bar. It required a special person to influence a lawfaculty in the Deep South to resolve unanimously to provide legalassistance to all who sought it, regardless of their race. The publicstance taken by Lindsey Cowen evoked harsh personal attacks.These damaged the new Dean's relationships with both the lawyerand lay communities in Georgia. They clearly threatened his holdon the political and financial support necessary to carry out hisplans for the law school.There occurred one other incident early in his tenure as Deanat Georgia, perhaps more threatening to his career and his plansfor the school. He was to make a speech at a major Law Schoolfunction. Among the important guests sharing the speakers' plat-form was the late Senator Herman Talmadge, arguably the mostpowerful politician in Georgia at that time. Protest marches inSelma, Alabama, to secure voting rights for black citizens, hadproduced violent police reaction. The Dean of the state lawschool, one who taught constitutional law, had an obligation tocomment on the phenomenon of civil disobedience and the vio-lence attending it. Lindsey Cowen could have spoken againstthose whose excesses in championing their causes disturbed thelegal and social order. He could have compromised with a neutral"plague on both your houses" speech. Instead, he spoke of theinjustice of a system that made it necessary for decent people toprotest. Hearing these words, Senator Talmadge angrily and audi-bly interrupted his remarks, chilling the occasion, and making itclear Lindsey Cowen had a powerful enemy. That the GeorgiaLaw School story had a happy ending does not diminish the sig-nificance of Lindsey Cowen's choosing to do what he knew had tobe done.In the coming year, he will be able to commit himself morefully to teaching. These few incidents pulled from the past saysomething about the kind of teacher he has been and will be. Heteaches by example. Through what he does, and by what he is, heteaches that we have the capacity to do what is right regardless ofthe cost to personal goals or reputation. The public side of Lind-sey Cowen's life shows that we have in our profession, personswho do what is right, simply because it is right; that there are per-sons who can teach us that lawyers should be good rather thanclever. We have been privileged to have had Lindsey Cowen asour Dean. We are fortunate to have him now as a teacher, col-league, and friend.EDwARD A. MEARNS, JR.** Vice Dean, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; Professor ofLaw, Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

A Tribute to Dean Lindsey Cowen

https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2372&amp;context=caselrev

A Tribute to Dean Lindsey Cowen

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Case Western Reserve University School of Law