Llewellyn, Karl Nickerson

University of Chicago Law School: Chicago Unbound

18 The Law School Record Vol. 7, No.2CHICAGO, FACULTY PROFILEKarl Nickerson LlewellynA typical day for Karl Nickerson Llewellyn beginsearly for it is during the hours before breakfast thatmuch of his work is done. After preparing coffee,which he maintains is best done by steeping, he beginsthe day's work. Whatever his project, the first draftof written work invariably is done on yellow, lined,legal-sized paper, and usually in pencil, a yellowlead pencil. These implements are important in thecraft of lawyering to Mr. Llewellyn, who is not con­vinced that an attorney can function as efficientlyon a white, unlined leaf. During the morning andthroughout the day, he fills up several pages with let­ters to authors of articles he has read, letters to edi­tors, ideas for lectures or articles, and perhaps poetry.He produces such a quantity of material that only apart of it is ever worked into final form.Much of Professor Llewellyn's working time athome and in his law school office is spent in prepar­ing lectures to be presented to his classes. He neveruses old lecture notes, but always reworks the mate­rial he has in the light of his present thinking on thesubject, adding new material and deleting other. Hisconstant revision is remarkable since nearly all ofProfessor Llewellyn's life in the law has been spentin teaching. After receiving his LLB from Yale LawSchool, he served as an instructor in law while hecompleted his work for a JD. He then accepted aposition with the New York law firm of Shearmanand Sterling, although he probably considered his.work there to be more of a continuation of his inter­est in negotiable instrument law than as the start ofa career in the practice of law. While a member ofthe firm he had the opportunity to work with theNew York banks in revising the forms which they usedin international trade. From his experience withbanking problems, he developed an interest in lettersof credit and cable transfer questions which has con­tinued throughout his career and is evident in hiswork as the Chief Reporter of the Uniform Commer­cial Code. After two years, Llewellyn returned tocontinue his teaching career at Yale Law School. Hethen served on the faculty of Columbia Universitywhere he held the chair of Betts Professor of Law.He was a guest professor at the University of Leipzigand Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.In 1951 he [oined the University of Chicago LawSchool as Professor of Law in which capacity he ispresently serving.In the actual presentation of his materials in class,Karl Llewellyn is much the same today as he waswhen he taught his first class in Negotiable Instru­Continued on page 30Advancement of the LawBy KARL N. LLEWELLYNProfessor of Law, The University of Chicago LawSchool[Reprinted, by permission, from The Student Law­yer, the Journal of the American Law Student Asso­ciation, Volume 3, Number 4, April, 1958.]What one notices first and most about the Law Schoolof the University of Chicago is the combination offire and drive with roundedness and balance. Thereis no uniqueness merely in the presence of a large full­time faculty full of distinguished scholars and teachers.There is no uniqueness in the development and use ofa varied battery of instruction techniques in additionto the more usual case-class and occasional lecture.There is no uniqueness merely in the presence of ahighly select student body, nor in one small enough tomake possible a striking amount of personal contactand instruction. There is no uniqueness merely in sus­tained insistence on vision, range, the human back­ground and the political and social problems native tosound work in the legal field; neither can uniquenessbe found in sustained insistence on the importance ofthe materials and teachings of the other social dis­ciplines.Although it can indeed be doubted whether anyother school at all rivals Chicago's stress on theory andworkshop practice in basic lines of legal craftsmanship,the distinguishing characteristic of the school remainsthe way in which that stress is fitted into harmonywith such other attributes as have been mentioned, theway in which all such things are merged into a work­ing, rounded whole.This characteristic becomes most clear if one runsthe eye over the history of American law schools andnotes how each notable advance has tended to comeat one or another high price in exaggeration. Thegrowing point of the decade or the region has alwaysbeen exciting for the teachers concerned and for someor most of the best of the students; but the bulk of theclass, who need formed and sustained lines of in­struction, have commonly missed out in regard tovarious important matters which were not at the placeand the moment in the focus of conscious attention.Take for example the huge gain which came fromintroducing schools at all. Here was a beginning oforder and of system in legal training, the substitutionof a reckonable course of study for the hap-hazardnessof the older reading-and-apprenticeship approach. Itwas another huge gain to develop the full-time teacher,whose teaching of his students can become his life,and is in no event merely a by-product or a touch ofContinued on page 2830 The Law School Record Vol. 7, No.2counselling, some phrases of writing, and both theoryand practice of drafting.The most recent of the major innovations in Ameri­can law teaching has been the spread of materials,interest and inquiry into the general societal andgovernment area of problems for government and law.For forty years there has been drive and talk and hopeand experiment in this direction, with more effect onteachers and on scholarly production than on curric­ular architecture or the individual class-room. Chicagohas achieved as close an approach to healthy balancehere as the country has yet seen.The pioneering explorations into behavioral sciencefor which the school has become famous have not inthe main touched the curriculum directly, though theyhave offered students opportunity to earn money inintellectually exciting work. But apart from the valueto any school of having the thinking of faculty mem­bers profit by the ferment of frontier-research, onefinds interesting direct values for teaching emergingfrom the studies of the processes of deciding, and onefinds the students alert, and pleased to be alert, tothe human richness of "law"-thinking which can drawon (while dominating, not being dominated by) themore usable results from neighboring disciplines.The tradition of cross-fertilization is old at Chicago.Its law faculty has contained a logician-philosopher,long contained two economists, has in these recentdays of behavioral inquiry added men from SOciologyand psychology. Such men do not interefer with thesolidity of the school's training in the work of law.They add-as each of the other aspects mentionedadds-good measure of rich roundedness and balance.They add-mostly by way of influence on their legalcolleagues-their part of that which makes the LawSchool of the University of Chicago not only a pro­fessional school of the first order, but a school of thehumanities: a place where vision and sound measurelive in concert.Llewellyn Profile­Continued from page 18ments at Yale. He brings to his classes an enthusiasmfor the law and a sensitivity and sincere dedication tothe finer tradition of the lawyer's craft. His robust,fresh approach to law, and to life, induces him todevelop new theories and ways of doing things whichhe enjoys discussing with his classes and his col­leagues. His is the talent, moreover, of impressing anotion upon the minds of his students with a dramatic,almost indelible quality. His unique choice of wordsand illustrations and his coordination of vocal expres­sion and gesture enable him to communicate with hisstudents with an intensity and vividness they do notforget. One day after strongly emphasizing the dis-advantages of paraphrasing a statute, he had his en­tire class repeat several times in unison the phrase,"Never paraphrase a statute." Someone in that classmay some day paraphrase a statute, but it is doubtful�e will do �? without remembering that he shouldNever ....It has been suggested that Mr. Llewellyn is onoccasion given to overstatement. Whether or not thatis so, it is true that no one is more generous in prais­ing a job well done than Karl Llewellyn. His greatadmiration for men such as Scrutton and Cardozo iswell known and has been expressed by him manytimes; these were men with horse sense who couldget to the barebones of a problem and come up witha lovely, clean law-job that bites. Speaking of sucha man, Professor Llewellyn will sometimes strike thedesk with his fist, shake his head and, with a twinklein his eye, exclaim, "What a man it was!" On theother hand, it is equally true that few are more devas­tating in condemning a job considered to be poorlydone; Mr. Llewellyn hates a lousy, lazy job and hasno use for the man who did it, damn his soul, anddoes not hesitate to tell him so.Professor Llewellyn and his wife, Soia Mentschi­koff, also on the faculty of the University of ChicagoLaw School, reserve one evening a week for an 'athome' with their students affording them an oppor­tunity to know their students better. Mr. Llewellynis a widely read man, has many interests outside thelaw and is happy to talk with students on varioustopics whether or not related to law. This is typicalof the personal interest Professor Llewellyn has alwaystaken in his students. And many of the men who havestudied under him write from time to time tellinghim of their plans and accomplishments.A list of Mr. Llewellyn's interests outside of lawshould include his activity as a boxer while a studentat Yale. His participation in sports today, however,centers mainly around golf which he plays regularly.The development and care of orchards is anothersubject which holds an especial fascination for Mr.Llewellyn, and is one in which he considers himselfsomewhat expert. Cats, of course, have been a greatlove of his for many years. He has owned severalMaltese cats which he has even used as the subjectsof some of his poems. For, in addition to the manybooks, articles and lectures on law he has published,Karl Llewellyn has found time to put together twobooks of poetry, Beach Plums and Put In His Thumb.His poems deal with a wide range of subjects whichhave interested him; some even deal with certainaspects of the law. But whatever the topic, they allcontain the vitality and depth which characterize allof Professor Llewellyn's work, and which, in fact,characterize Professor Llewellyn himself.Jack D. Beem, JD '5530 The Law School Record Vol. 7, No.2counselling, some phrases of writing, and both theoryand practice of drafting.The most recent of the major innovations in Ameri­can law teaching has been the spread of materials,interest and inquiry into the general societal andgovernment area of problems for government and law.For forty years there has been drive and talk and hopeand experiment in this direction, with more effect onteachers and on scholarly production than on curric­ular architecture or the individual class-room. Chicagohas achieved as close an approach to healthy balancehere as the country has yet seen.The pioneering explorations into behavioral sciencefor which the school has become famous have not inthe main touched the curriculum directly, though theyhave offered students opportunity to earn money inintellectually exciting work. But apart from the valueto any school of having the thinking of faculty mem­bers profit by the ferment of frontier-research, onefinds interesting direct values for teaching emergingfrom the studies of the processes of deciding, and onefinds the students alert, and pleased to be alert, tothe human richness of "law"-thinking which can drawon (while dominating, not being dominated by) themore usable results from neighboring disciplines.The tradition of cross-fertilization is old at Chicago.Its law faculty has contained a logician-philosopher,long contained two economists, has in these recentdays of behavioral inquiry added men from SOciologyand psychology. Such men do not interefer with thesolidity of the school's training in the work of law.They add-as each of the other aspects mentionedadds-good measure of rich roundedness and balance.They add-mostly by way of influence on their legalcolleagues-their part of that which makes the LawSchool of the University of Chicago not only a pro­fessional school of the first order, but a school of thehumanities: a place where vision and sound measurelive in concert.Llewellyn Profile­Continued from page 18ments at Yale. He brings to his classes an enthusiasmfor the law and a sensitivity and sincere dedication tothe finer tradition of the lawyer's craft. His robust,fresh approach to law, and to life, induces him todevelop new theories and ways of doing things whichhe enjoys discussing with his classes and his col­leagues. His is the talent, moreover, of impressing anotion upon the minds of his students with a dramatic,almost indelible quality. His unique choice of wordsand illustrations and his coordination of vocal expres­sion and gesture enable him to communicate with hisstudents with an intensity and vividness they do notforget. One day after strongly emphasizing the dis-advantages of paraphrasing a statute, he had his en­tire class repeat several times in unison the phrase,"Never paraphrase a statute." Someone in that classmay some day paraphrase a statute, but it is doubtful�e will do �? without remembering that he shouldNever ....It has been suggested that Mr. Llewellyn is onoccasion given to overstatement. Whether or not thatis so, it is true that no one is more generous in prais­ing a job well done than Karl Llewellyn. His greatadmiration for men such as Scrutton and Cardozo iswell known and has been expressed by him manytimes; these were men with horse sense who couldget to the barebones of a problem and come up witha lovely, clean law-job that bites. Speaking of sucha man, Professor Llewellyn will sometimes strike thedesk with his fist, shake his head and, with a twinklein his eye, exclaim, "What a man it was!" On theother hand, it is equally true that few are more devas­tating in condemning a job considered to be poorlydone; Mr. Llewellyn hates a lousy, lazy job and hasno use for the man who did it, damn his soul, anddoes not hesitate to tell him so.Professor Llewellyn and his wife, Soia Mentschi­koff, also on the faculty of the University of ChicagoLaw School, reserve one evening a week for an 'athome' with their students affording them an oppor­tunity to know their students better. Mr. Llewellynis a widely read man, has many interests outside thelaw and is happy to talk with students on varioustopics whether or not related to law. This is typicalof the personal interest Professor Llewellyn has alwaystaken in his students. And many of the men who havestudied under him write from time to time tellinghim of their plans and accomplishments.A list of Mr. Llewellyn's interests outside of lawshould include his activity as a boxer while a studentat Yale. His participation in sports today, however,centers mainly around golf which he plays regularly.The development and care of orchards is anothersubject which holds an especial fascination for Mr.Llewellyn, and is one in which he considers himselfsomewhat expert. Cats, of course, have been a greatlove of his for many years. He has owned severalMaltese cats which he has even used as the subjectsof some of his poems. For, in addition to the manybooks, articles and lectures on law he has published,Karl Llewellyn has found time to put together twobooks of poetry, Beach Plums and Put In His Thumb.His poems deal with a wide range of subjects whichhave interested him; some even deal with certainaspects of the law. But whatever the topic, they allcontain the vitality and depth which characterize allof Professor Llewellyn's work, and which, in fact,characterize Professor Llewellyn himself.Jack D. Beem, JD '55

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