Almost everyone who\u2019s ever even thought about law school has heard that attending one will teach you, primarily, to \u201cthink like a lawyer.\u201d\u00a0 While that is universally recognized as an important element of any legal education, three events over the past week have led me to conclude that we cannot only be about teaching our students\u2019 minds: we must also be engaging their hearts. \u00a0Fortunately, recent events have reminded me that this is something the faculty and alumni of Temple Law do exceptionally well.<\/p>\n
On Friday, April 4th<\/sup>, Temple Law hosted Wills for Heroes, an organization that assists first responders and members of the military in drafting basic estate planning documents.\u00a0 Dan McKenna \u201905 and volunteers from Ballard Spahr joined Temple Law faculty, administrators and students to provide this much-needed service.\u00a0 The feel-good vibes were palpable, and you could see in the faces of the clients the peace that comes from knowing that you are doing something tangible and concrete to protect the ones you love.<\/p>\n On Saturday, Professor Jane Baron, who had also volunteered at the event on Friday, met students from her Property class at the East Poplar Playground and Recreation Center where, as part of the 7th annual Philly Spring Cleanup, they worked to spruce up a community garden.\u00a0 Professor Baron has been a real driving force for the law school, reminding us that giving back to our community is not an obligation; it\u2019s not even something we occasionally do.\u00a0 It is who we are.<\/p>\n In between these two wonderful events was yet a third expression of the Temple Law Heart \u2013 -the tribute to Professor Eddie Ohlbaum, (\u201cEddie\u201d to everyone), who passed away on March 13 after a valiant but too brief battle against cancer.\u00a0 Judge Mitchell Goldberg (EDPA) gave comments from the judiciary, and as a member (with Andy Stern) of the inaugural trial team.\u00a0 Luke Reiter, currently Executive Producer of \u201cThe Blacklist\u201d but with legions of Hollywood credits to his name, spoke on behalf of the trial team (he was a member of Temple\u2019s winning National Trial Competition team (NTC) where he received \u2018best advocate honors).\u00a0 Emilia McKee, a current 3L and member of the all-women NTC team just back from Texas where we once again made the Elite Eight, spoke about Eddie\u2019s impact on trial team members, sharing with us an email Eddie had written to the team after a heart-breaking second-place finish earlier in the year. In his message to this year\u2019s team members, Eddie reminded them of all they had accomplished and how proud he was of them.\u00a0 He told them, and forgive me for paraphrasing, that he would go into battle with them any day.\u00a0 That\u00a0unqualified support is what we all received from Eddie in various forms and settings.\u00a0 And it is what we so very much miss.\u00a0 After Emilia came David Layne, also a 3L, who talked about Eddie\u2019s impact on students not on the trial team.\u00a0 In reprising an encounter he\u2019d had with Eddie about his success on Eddie\u2019s Evidence exam, David reminded us that Eddie cared about every one of his students, not as competitors or numbers, but as people.<\/p>\n David was followed by a trio of faculty members.\u00a0 Professor Lou Natali reminisced about hiring Eddie at the Defender Association of Philadelphia, and Eddie\u2019s relentless commitment to out-work everyone else. \u00a0Professor Eleanor Myers reflected on Eddie\u2019s service in the Temple Office of University Counsel, where he excelled at civil litigation, but just hated it.\u00a0 Fortunately, Temple Law School came calling, and Eddie joined the Law School faculty in 1984.\u00a0 Former University Counsel and former Dean Bob Reinstein shared memories of Eddie\u2019s role on the Law School faculty, particularly as architect of the nationally-recognized advocacy program, an impact that single-handedly changed Temple Law School.<\/p>\n Having labelled both her presence and her participation as a game-day decision, Eddie\u2019s widow, Karyn Scher, graced us with remarks.\u00a0 She was at once nostalgic yet funny.\u00a0 She shared a hilarious dream she\u2019d had featuring Eddie and St. Peter.\u00a0 I won\u2019t reveal the punchline in case she chooses to tell it again \u2014 as she should.<\/p>\n The tribute ended with a short but poignant video, ending with Eddie\u2019s hands over his head in victory.\u00a0 (Thank you, Steve App, for finding the video).\u00a0 It reminded us of his essence, his encouragement, and his love of success. \u00a0The planning committee concluded, afterwards, that the evening was as near perfect as one could hope.<\/p>\n Why do I go on like this?\u00a0 In part, I want to honor my friend and colleague, Eddie Ohlbaum. But as I surveyed the several hundred people who had gathered to honor his contributions (the event was planned as a tribute, long before we had reason to suspect he would not be present to witness it), I realized that Eddie, and our reaction to his achievements and his loss, are what people love about Temple.\u00a0 As an institution, Temple has a big heart\u00a0 one with space and love for all of our community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Almost everyone who\u2019s ever even thought about law school has heard that attending one will teach you, primarily, to \u201cthink like a lawyer.\u201d\u00a0 While that is universally recognized as an important element of any legal education, three events over the past week have led me to conclude that we cannot only be about teaching our students\u2019 minds: we must also be engaging their hearts. \u00a0Fortunately, recent events have reminded me that this is something the faculty and alumni of Temple Law do exceptionally well. On Friday, April 4th, Temple Law hosted Wills for Heroes, an organization that assists first responders and members of the military in drafting basic estate planning documents.\u00a0 Dan McKenna \u201905 and volunteers from Ballard Spahr joined Temple Law faculty, administrators and students to provide this much-needed service.\u00a0 The feel-good vibes were palpable, and you could see in the faces of the clients the peace that comes from knowing that you are doing something tangible and concrete to protect the ones you love. On Saturday, Professor Jane Baron, who had also volunteered …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"audience":[],"coauthors":[19],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-dean"],"yoast_head":"\r\n