Hallows Lecture: Hon. Lee H. Rosenthal

March 5th, 2019
Ambition, Aspiration, and the Art of Judging
Hon. Lee H. Rosenthal
Almost 150 years ago, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. probed what it means to have ambitions and aspirations to accomplishment and satisfaction in the law-whether studying, practicing, teaching, or deciding it. All of these roles have changed, and yet his questions resonate today: "How can the laborious study of a dry and technical system, the greedy watch for clients and practice of shopkeepers' arts, the mannerless conflicts over often sordid interests, make out a life?" Can our ambition-which got us all where we are-lead us to a good and satisfying life in the law? This lecture will take up this question by looking first at the roles of ambition and aspiration in judging. With some recent examples, the ambitious judge will be compared to the aspirational judge-with results both comforting and troubling. On this basis, the lecture will then turn to the work of law students, law professors, and lawyers, to ask how, in 2019, ambition and aspiration can help make out a life in the law.