Dean's Address

This address is dedicated to John Lommen and his wife Betty. Mr. Lommen, an excellent trial lawyer and a former director of the Academy, passed away February 11, 1988 while trying a case in court.

I See A Cloud - Revisited

By G. Alan Cunnighman

About twenty‑eight years ago and at a location on the Atlantic seaboard a considerable distance north of here, a federal court judge gave a speech which obviously made a lasting impression on me. For about twenty‑five minutes, he was an outstanding humorist. Laughter hardly subsided before he had generated a new wave of laughter. But for about the last five minutes you could have heard a pin drop. He was serious and he held everyone's attention.

The judge expressed concern about a cloud which he saw on the horizon. As I later remembered the speech, his cloud was that of Federalism in the court system. A recent rereading of his speech made me realize my memory had altered the cloud he saw ‑instead it was the overcrowding of civil cases in federal courts, a fear of resulting problems and a plea that the lawyers ease the burden by earlier, realistic settlements.

As I said, his speech made an impression on me. It must have; to my knowledge I have never had any contact with him either before or since. Yet, last year when the deanship of this Academy befell me, it did not take long for me to conclude that the title for this speech would be "I See A Cloud -Revisited."

The cloud which I now see is not the same one the federal judge saw on the horizon twenty-eight years ago. His cloud has not entirely disappeared. It still needs new and innovative attention.

But I believe the cloud which I see is much closer than merely being on the horizon. In addition, I perceive that it may be much more ominous and, unless we do something to cause it to break up or disappear, it may turn into a very destructive, possible hurricane‑like storm which may dramatically, maybe tragically, alter our legal system.

What is this storm cloud? I am not sure by what name a meteorologist would identify it. Possibly he would call it a killer storm. Let me describe for you only a few of the various features which have helped to spawn and intensify this cloud.

They include a gross overcrowding of our present judicial system, caused by many different factors, including a tendency to try to provide a remedy, sometimes multiple and even sequential remedies, for every perceived or imagined wrong, a growth in the judiciary which is only a fraction of the explosion which has occurred in civil litigation, not to mention the dramatic increase in criminal trials and procedures.

It also includes an attitude, a greed, which I am sure you have heard expressed by some lawyers to the effect:

“If I can just keep it coming in
for another five (some might use
the number ten) more years, I could
care less what happens to our legal
system after that.”

Lest there be some misunderstanding, such comments are not confined to one side or to one segment of the legal community.

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