“Large universities now employ the equivalents of small law firms on staff, and it’s worth pondering what this Perry Masonification of our schools says about how they operate. …As Ed Stoner, a retired Pittsburgh lawyer who, over a 30-year career, represented numerous schools in Western Pennsylvania, told me: ‘People [today] are much less inclined to think, “I wouldn’t sue the university, it’d be like suing my mother.” People tend to look at the university as one more institution that might have a lot of money.'” (Mark Oppenheimer, “College Goes to Court”, OpinionJournal, Jul. 14).
Ivied halls, defended by lawyer phalanxes
“Large universities now employ the equivalents of small law firms on staff, and it’s worth pondering what this Perry Masonification of our schools says about how they operate. …As Ed Stoner, a retired Pittsburgh lawyer who, over a 30-year career, represented numerous schools in Western Pennsylvania, told me: ‘People [today] are much less inclined to […]
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When universities curtail freedom of speech by punishing students with conservative views (academicbias.com had a documentary while the site existed) or when they slander a person’s name by finding them guilty in the court of public opinion (Duke), they apparently display a need for a small law firm to help keep them out of trouble.
Yet I would be surprised if the scenarios above (in which I’m sympathetic to the students) account for the overlawyering of universities and colleges.
I find intriguing the Pennsylvania lawyer’s remark about “suing your own mother,” which is how students once might of thought of it (regardless of their understanding of the Latin “alma mater”). I think this accounts for much overlawyering of American society. People have always been greedy. But they haven’t always been so disloyal to the institutions of society, like the company, the factory, the neighborhood, the school and even (yes), the government, especially local government. The fracturing of society has helped that – all these institutions are supposedly “racist” or “sexist,” so it’s OK to hit them. Every man for himself in today’s world means every man must hire a lawyer, or be one. We are at the dawn of the Mad Max Era.