Osler's Razor

On my short visit to Philadelphia last week, I got to see two good friends in addition to Judge Dubois and his family. Both date from my days as a student and clerk, and some 17 years later, we are still friends. For you students, I guess this means that the people you are hanging out with may still be in your lives a few decades from now (just without PC exercises).

Mike Schwartz and I lived together second and third year of law school, then shared an apartment while clerking in Philadelphia. Mike is an incredible lawyer, with some skills I will never have. For most of this decade, he served as the head of the U.S. Attorney's Public Corruption section, which is a big deal in Philadelphia (since there tends to be a lot of public corruption). We had a great lunch at the Capitol Grill, and the guy still looks exactly the way he did in law school. Later that day, I ran into another lawyer in town who said something amazing about Mike-- that "even though he has beaten a lot of people in court, there's no one in this town who doesn't like him and admire him."

Hope Freiwald was my co-clerk, and a sharp lawyer even then. For 17 years, she has worked for the firm of Dechert, Price & Rhodes, where she now is a partner. She was named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer in both 2007 and 2008, and she sure taught me a lot when we served together under Judge Dubois. Though I don't think large-firm practice is right for everyone, there are some with the right set of skills who thrive in that environment, and Hope is one of the best. A few weeks ago, Hope had a fund-raiser for a political candidate at her home. The speaker (in their living room) was Lawrence Tribe. Crikeys.

No matter what I do, it seems my friends do better, and that is a wonderful thing-- to have those you are fond of as friends also be those you admire as professionals. I think the same will be true of many of the students I have the pleasure to teach these days.