Garzino, Fred R.

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DePaul Law Review Volume 50 Issue 4 Summer 2001: 50th Anniversary Issue Article 7 DePaul Law: Staying in Shape for Shaping the Future Fred R. Garzino Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review Recommended Citation Fred R. Garzino, DePaul Law: Staying in Shape for Shaping the Future, 50 DePaul L. Rev. 1091 (2001) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/vol50/iss4/7 This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Law Review by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact digitalservices@depaul.edu. DEPAUL LAW:STAYING IN SHAPE FOR SHAPING THE FUTUREFred R. Garzino*Much has changed in legal thought and practice in the past fiftyyears. The list of advancements is long and impressive. Lookingback, the DePaul College of Law and the DePaul Law Review areliving testaments to the change and adaptiveness that invariably comeover the course of half a century. We have come a long way. Nosurprises there. After all, change is inevitable.But looking ahead to the next half century, the exact shape of thechanges in legal end points may not really matter. What will matter isthe process followed in arriving at those end points. The process inlegal education to which DePaul commits itself during the next halfcentury will determine whether DePaul continues to influence theshaping of future legal thought and practice, or is merely shaped bythose forces.The rules governing any human endeavor undergo transformationas time passes. This is true in all areas of the law: criminal, constitu-tional, torts, etc. Even etched-in-stone, blackletter law changes withtime. Unswerving, blackletter law is relatively easy to apply.1 Butsuch law does not always mean justice has been served. The samebasic tenets are applied to simple and complex cases alike. At times,such law is applied to real-world fact patterns that could benefit froma more individualized and thoughtful application of legal principles.Perhaps the classic example resides in tort law. If you do not have aspecific, legal relationship with another person, then there is no legalcompulsion to come to the aid of anyone in need, even a drowningneighbor. Walking away is legal, but is that the kind of law that trulysupports society?What is missing from such an approach is an appreciation of theessential soul of the law. The need to change the law often comeswrapped in the community's shared sense that compassion is missingand the rules no longer serve us as they should. But for these neces-* Mr. Garzino served as the Editor-in-Chief of the DePaul Law Review from 1997-1998.1. Although blackletter law is used as a convenient example, the following comments pertainequally to almost all facets of the law1091DEPAUL LAW REVIEWsary changes to occur there must be a continuing connection betweensociety and its legal guardians. This is where DePaul's approach tolegal education can continue to make a decided difference.For many attorneys, questions concerning the need for legalchanges are first formulated in law school, where differences areclearly defined between the layperson's concept of justice and its pre-cise legal reality. Later on, these questions get tested as the alumniassume active roles on bar organization committees. The alumni canthen restate those questions in an effort to maintain a close connec-tion between legal thought and social need. Throughout this processan underlying question needs to be continually restated and reexam-ined: Although the activity may be the legal thing to do, is it the rightthing to do? DePaul's legal education process, and those of us whohave participated in it and whose thinking has been influenced by it,must continue to ensure that the human element is never lost in any-thing to which the law is applied. This does not occur automatically.Rather, it is a mind set that must be exercised as often as the practiceof law itself.DePaul can remain a unique force for responsible change by striv-ing to ensure that legal education, and the profession itself, remainconnected to the society they serve. We lose sight of this when wetreat ethics as something outside the law and its application. We losesight of this when we only teach and follow professional rules of con-duct that do not address and discuss common ethical considerations,considerations that society, both laypeople and lawyers, understandsto be ethical. In practice, though, we attorneys have our own set of"legal ethics," while society has a separate set.Ethical choices and moral questions need to be addressed as inte-grated parts of legal questions. We in the legal community should notfeel protected by the artificial shield afforded by classes in "legal pro-fession" and allegiance to the precepts of "legal ethics." Unfortu-nately, complying with professional ethical standards alone may notalways mean that society's fundamental ethical needs are being satis-fied. Adopting professional standards too easily allows us to divorceour actions from the real needs of the people who participate in thelegal system as plaintiffs, defendants, victims, jurists, and legislators.Relying only on external guidelines fashioned by professional commit-tees, we begin a dangerous dance of following guidelines that we inthe profession set for ourselves. It then becomes easy to be discon-nected from the ethical guidelines that society requires. Instead ofone integrated set of guidelines that support one another, the profes-sion subtly sets itself apart from the society it purports to serve. In[Vol. 50:109110922001] STAYING IN SHAPE FOR SHAPING THE FUTURE 1093effect, the legal profession has for years practiced its own version ofPlessy v. Ferguson's2 infamous "separate but equal ' 3 rationale-a ver-sion that continues to persist in the legal profession long after the ap-plication of such logic to the community's shared need for educationwas recognized as absurd. 4 Yet, we attorneys fail to see that we applythe same logic in our dealings with everyone outside our profession.But why should the legal profession's moral compass be a differentinstrument from the one that guides society's other needs? Don't weall share a common set of ethical aspirations, regardless of the forum?Not allowing society's needs to be pried apart from the needs of thelegal profession is a small step that DePaul can continue to assert in itsapproach to legal training. Yes, DePaul will continue to teach the pro-fession's separate shield known as "legal profession." But DePaul canalso continue to direct class discussion to include the larger ethicalissues that do not disappear when we raise our hands and take ouroaths as attorneys. Teaching this broader perspective in sync withteaching the law is what DePaul can continue to do as it charts acourse for completing its first full century. The DePaul communityshould not lose sight of the moral cement that joins lawyer to client,legal profession to society.None of the above considerations constitute any real change for theDePaul College of Law. DePaul's educational process and committedfaculty speak to these values, to connecting the classroom with thelegal issues and realities of our times. As we prepare to step into thenext fifty years, now is the moment to pause and ensure that theDePaul legal community-alumni, administration, faculty, and stu-dents-renew their commitment to applying the litmus test of socialreality to the conceptual progress of the law. Those involved with theDePaul Law experience are ideally positioned to continue sending outstudents and alumni with this charge: Do not just make a living-make a difference.2. Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).3. Id.4. See Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).DEPAUL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 50:10911094

DePaul Law: Staying in Shape for Shaping the Future

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DePaul Law: Staying in Shape for Shaping the Future

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