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2009 AALS News 1 (2009)

handle is hein.aals/aalsnews2009 and id is 1 raw text is: the president's message Rachel Moran, Universiy of California, Berkele The following is the Presidential Address of Rachel Moran before the House of Representatives at the AALS Annual Meeting onJanuag 9, 2009. I first want to thank all of the individuals, too numerous to mention here, who have supported me throughout my career and have placed their confidence in me as I embark on my term as President of the Association of American Law Schools. A few people do deserve special mention, however. They are my friend and mentor, Herma Hill Kay, who nominated me for this position, as well as my col- leagues Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Gerald Torres, and Charles Weisselberg, who wrote letters on my behalf. Then, of course, there are the wonderful members of the AALS staff, who enable every President to do his or her work. I appreciate all of their efforts but especially those of previous Executive Director Carl Monk, current Executive Director Susan Prager, Deputy Director David Brennen, and Managing Director Jane La Barbera. I am indebted to Joe Knight for a provocative dis- cussion that greatly helped in my thinking on this topic and to Greg Diamond for his invaluable re- search assistance in preparing this talk. Last but certainly not least, I want to express my deep gratitude to my parents for their love and guidance throughout the years and to acknowledge my mother who is here in the audience today. Next year, we will be meeting in New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina forced the relocation of our 2006 Annual Meeting. During my Presidential year, I am adopting the theme of Transformative Law, mind- ful of the symbolic significance of our return there as well as of the successes and failures of the legal profession in addressing this perilous past decade. Our meet- ing this year takes place at a time of crisis in our economy, our ecology, and our international standing as the leader of the free world. Many lawyers (including our President- Elect, Vice -President- Elect, and many Cabinet officials, and congressional leaders) must tackle these challenges. Media coverage of their efforts, however, portrays these public servants as people who happen to be lawyers, not as lawyers whose leadership grows out of their mastery of law and whose accomplishments represent the pinnacle of their professional pur- suits. To a significant degree, the accounts reflect the fact that these leaders have not pursued a tradi- tional law firm practice but instead have devoted themselves to gov- ernment and public service. The image of the citizen-lawyer, whose training can be used to advance the common good, has so thoroughly disappeared from the popular imagination that those who pursue this path are no longer centrally defined as lawyers. Contrast today's portrayals to those of fifty years ago, when the word lawyer might conjure up images of crusaders in the civil rights movement. Or, compare these images to those of an even earlier era, when attorneys en- tered public life as architects of the New Deal. When citizen-lawyers Continued on page 2 Printed as a Public Service by West Law School Publishing and Foundation Press.

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