Politz, Henry A.

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Louisiana State University: DigitalCommons @ LSU Law Center

Louisiana Law ReviewVolume 52 | Number 6July 1992Alvin Benjamin Rubin: Jurist-Scholar-GentlemanExtraordinaireHenry A. PolitzThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted forinclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact kreed25@lsu.edu.Repository CitationHenry A. Politz, Alvin Benjamin Rubin: Jurist-Scholar-Gentleman Extraordinaire, 52 La. L. Rev. (1992)Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol52/iss6/12Alvin Benjamin Rubin: Jurist-Scholar-GentlemanExtraordinaireHenry A. Politz*In this issue of the Law Review of the law school he loved sodearly, we celebrate and express our appreciation for the life and legacyof our esteemed friend and colleague, Alvin B. Rubin, the consummatelawyer, scholar, teacher, and federal trial and appellate jurist. Profes-sionally he did it all, of that we personally can attest. His accomplish-ments may have been equaled, but it is not likely that they have beenor ever will be surpassed.Some few people have the enviable talent and genius to be in "highgear" intellectually even when they seem to be completely at ease and"on cruise control." Alvin Rubin numbered amongst this chosen few.His was a remarkable, disciplined mind. If there was ever any wastedspace or time in his daily routines, none ever appeared to the searchingand tutored eye of one who viewed him for nearly four decades fromthe vantage points of student, colleague at the bar, fellow teacher, and,finally, colleague on the bench. He regularly and consistently did moreof everything in less time and with less apparent effort than anyone Ihave ever known.It has been said that every human being, openly or more covertly,aspires to leave a mark showing that he or she passed this way. AlvinRubin has done that in spades. His mark as a lawyer and legal scholarmay be found in his writings published in articles and books and, perhapsmore tellingly, in the hearts and minds of his law students during morethan forty years of teaching in law schools across the nation. His markas a judge of the United States District Court may be found in themany innovations he introduced to improve the quality and quantity ofjustice dispensed by our trial courts. Finally, his mark as a judge ofthe United States Court of Appeals may be found in nearly 400 volumesdf the Federal Reporter 2d Series. As one reads his many opinions, onecan only marvel at the extent of his wisdom, keenness, and humanity.Alvin Rubin indeed belonged to a small and select group. Shortlyafter Judge Rubin's death, at a special en banc session of the UnitedStates Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals called in his honor, Judge JohnMinor Wisdom, Judge Rubin's predecessor who shared his intellectualplane, identified the members of that small and select group. JudgeCopyright 1992, by LOUISIANA LAW REVIEW.* Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Judicial Circuit.2LOUISIANA LA W REVIEWWisdom concluded that Alvin Rubin's intellect, scholarship, and judicialleadership placed him in an elite group of juridical giants which includedOliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Benjamin N. Cardozo, Louis D. Brandeis,Learned Hand, and Henry J. Friendly. Judge Wisdom was being char-acteristically generous to those he thus joined with our Fifth Circuitcolleague.Much can be said about the quality of Judge Rubin's written op-inions. One may rightly suggest that they need no spokesman; theyloudly and eloquently speak for themselves-today, tomorrow, and foras far into the future as one may presume to see. What is not so easilyperceived is the quality and quantity of the contributions he made behindthe scenes to improve the administration of justice in myriad ways. Hisantennae were always up and scanning; his computer was always upand running. The flow of his suggestions, large and small, was a veritablecascade: how to improve the circuit library; how to improve chambersresearch techniques; how to skillfully move from the printed word re-source to the electronic characters displayed on a CRT; how to betterthe method of preparing memoranda by staff counsel; how to quickenand lessen the paper flow to and from chambers; how best to helplawyers and litigants fathom the mysteries of the appellate process; andhow to aid an attorney in the preparation of a useful brief and mean-ingful oral argument. No matter was too small or too large for hiscareful eye, from the size of the footnotes in the brief to an attorney'sgestures at the lectern. From the smallest of details to the greatest ofconcepts Alvin B. Rubin could and would quickly, but ever so kindly,tell the fledgling, or senior, lawyer, how to better his professionalperformance.He was a perfectionist who inspired all around him to seek, con-sciously and unconsciously, to achieve a measure of that perfection. Heled and guided but never pushed or goaded. We who have known himand have served with him have been blessed; our lives have been enrichedbecause his life and destiny have touched ours. For that we are mostgrateful.1428 [Vol. 52

Alvin Benjamin Rubin: Jurist-Scholar-Gentleman Extraordinaire

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Alvin Benjamin Rubin: Jurist-Scholar-Gentleman Extraordinaire

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