New Louisville Dean (and my MoneyLaw boss) Jim Chen has written what may be my two all-time favorite blog posts:
Talent is important, but what is more important is toughness, passion, and the desire to win. Talent matters. But character trumps talent. …
I remember well the moment I realized that I had met the worst professor in the American legal academy. Indeed, in what is perhaps the greatest failure of moral judgment in my career, I had once counted him a friend. All that came before he devoted his considerable energy to destroying his school. I remember equally well the words that others used to excuse his odium. "He’s a smart guy. Brilliant, even." Others liked his "charm." I needn’t contest his brilliance or his charm, because this much will be true till the day he leaves academia for good: Any law school claiming him as a faculty member would be stronger without him. Worst of all, till character joins talent as a coin of the academic realm, law schools will continue to hire — and tenure — morally stunted professors who systematically place their own interests ahead of those of their students and of their schools.
The worst law professor in the United States reportedly hates baseball, among his many other flaws. But if he were a follower of the great American pastime, he would definitely be a Mets fan.
Juniority: The Administrative Version:
I was designated the dean of the University of Louisville School of Law on the week I turned 40 years old. I will have completed 50 weeks on the job by the time I turn 41. At least for the moment, the XL that applies to me is the one that applies to the Super Bowl: forty, not extra large.
I’ve made mistakes, and I’ve had to learn on the job. But not one moment since January 2, 2007, have I wished I had decades of experience in place of youthful exuberance, vigor, and vision. Louisville Law is so now, and I am delighted to have been given the chance to lead it at a relatively young age.
I don’t care if articulating my ambition makes it less likely to happen. It’s my dream, and I’ll tell if I want to. By the time I’m 50, I’d like to lead an entire university.
Before I retire, I’d like to be able to catch a 90 mile-per-hour fastball thrown by my (strictly hypothetical) firstborn. I won’t care whether she throws it over- or underhand.
Life doesn’t wait. Neither should the academy. In administration as in teaching, juniority has its virtues.
I wholeheartedly agree with the observation of my MoneyLaw co-blogger Jeff Harrison: "I do not think I have read a blogger who captures and expresses an idea as eloquently as Jim."
