It is a distinct pleasure and a true honor to help introduce the first-ever joint law review issue of the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. As readers should well know, Mitchell Hamline School of Law is the result of the combination of William Mitchell College of Law (with a history dating back to 1900) with the Hamline University School of Law (first founded in 1973).
As the first ever President and Dean of Mitchell Hamline, it is indeed a special honor to follow in the traditions of both of our wonderful predecessor law schools. In fact, it is to honor those traditions that this volume, even though it is the first issued by the combined law school, is denoted as Volume 42. The editors of both the Mitchell and the Hamline law reviews determined jointly that they would continue the numbering system of the longer-existing of the two law reviews, as a sign of respect and admiration for the student editors and faculty at both schools whose work over decades past has been so significant to legal scholarship and in whose footsteps today’s student editors are so proud to walk.
While each of our predecessor schools has its own distinctive histories and stories, its own traditions and founding stories, both have shared a long-standing commitment to access to legal education, to service, to excellence, and, more recently, to providing an education that truly prepares students to be lawyers and leaders for the 21st century.
One of the things that has struck me most forcefully as I have met the alumni of both institutions has been the fervor with which they speak so fondly of their law school and the definitiveness with which they state the difference that their law school experience has made in their lives. Their recollections often relate back to specific faculty members who educated and trained them, but who also challenged, supported, pushed, mentored, and inspired them. That list of legendary faculty is indeed a lengthy one, but it includes such luminaries as: Larry Bakken, Ed Butterfoss, Doug Heidenreich, Dan Kleinberger, Chris Kunz, Bobbi McAdoo, Douglas McFarland, Mary Jane Morrison, Dick Oakes, Deborah Schmedemann, Mike Steenson, Peter Thompson, Chris Ver Ploeg, and so many others who continue to engage and enrich the lives of today’s students.