Learned Hand's Reflections On His Professors

In 1958, the great Judge Learned Hand ended a series of lectures at Harvard Law School by reflecting on his professors when he was a law student there in the 1890s. It remains my favorite passage about law professors, and a vision for us in the profession to aspire to meet. Judge Hand wrote: More years ago than I like now to remember I sat in this building and listened to — yes, more than that, was dissected by — men all but one of whom are now dead. What I got from them was not alone the Rule in Shelley's case, or what was one's duty to an invited person — as we then called him — or what law determined whether a contract has been made, or how inadequate was the common law of partnership before the advent of Cory on Accounts, or in what jurisdictions a corporation is "present." True, I did