You know those jokes about lawyers?
Tom, a 39 year old partner at a posh law firm, hurries across the street, has a coronary, and dies. He gets to the Pearly Gates and is complaining that he was way too young to die. Peter takes one look at him and says, “All I did was look at your billing. I figured with all those hours, you must have been 100!”
Or, the tragedy when a bus toppled over the cliffs last week after the rains in LA. (Highway 1 literally fell away.) It was a tragedy because it was only 1/2 filled. We would have gotten rid of a whole bunch more lawyers.
Neither of these would fit Deborah Rhode- unless one considers them the object of her passion causes. She had a firm belief that the USA has an oversupply of lawyers and an undersupply of legal services for folks of moderate and low income. (As she stated in her tome, The Trouble with Lawyers).
Like many of my clients who lacked sufficient funds to file for bankruptcy (now, isn’t that the ultimate shame?)… Deborah advocated that for simple bankruptcies, for uncontested divorces- there simply is no need to retain the services of an attorney. To round out her legal system, she wanted more funding for legal aid- and more voluntary (pro-bono) hours that lawyers should provide the populace.
(How about this? As a high school debater, her frequent opponent was Merrick Garland- you know the Supreme Court Justice denied by McConnell- and the soon to be first reliable Attorney General in more than four years.)
Upon graduation from Yale Law, she clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall, and then became a Professor at Stanford in 1979. (She was the second woman to be granted tenure by the law school.). While at Stanford, she founded the Center on Ethics; at her death, she was known as the foremost expert in the subject. Deborah also founded the Center on the Legal Profession (Stanford) that dealt with the restrictive bar rules on the (unauthorized) practice of law and licensing systems. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, she founded (and directed) the Stanford Program on Social Entrepreneurship.
You probably never heard about Deborah because she refused to be a fashion queen, avoiding mascara, high heels, and the like. So the American Bar Association thought she was too ‘dull’ to highlight at their events.
Ms. Rhode died on 8 January 2021; her husband Ralph Cavanagh [they fell in love at Yale while in college, and married 3 years after graduation] survived her sudden death. At the age of 68, she managed to author- or cowrite more than 30 books and 200 articles!
Pretty darned impressive.
Thank you for letting us know about her and that she has written books as this is a new person for my son to study in Homeschool and gives him new books to research and read.
Glad to have influenced the education of a young one, Glenda!
Yes, quite impressive. I’m old enough now to say “she died too young”. Needless to say, a man never would have to face the obstacles of high heels and no makeup. One day….
Alana recently posted..Garden Bloggers Bloom Day February 2021
This ridiculous concept should have been retired in the 1960’s, Alana!
I like Deborah’s kind, no makeup or heels. Just down to earth goodness. RIP Ms. Rhode.
Martha recently posted..Over Loaded Pantry
There you go, Martha! A model for you!
Another unsung heroine. I will have to look up the book you referenced. She sounds like a very remarkable woman, like another woman I admire, RBG.
Glad to have introduced her to you!
WOW! Very impressive. She sounds like a great lady.
She certainly was a role model!