Why I Teach
by
Mark Dubois

A great philosopher once said that an unexamined life is not worth living. Yet it's often hard (if not impossible) when we are involved in the day-to-day battles of a busy law practice to step back and take a moment to look at the "why" as well as the "what" of our professional lives. It was such an impulse that led me, during the summer of 2001, to take "of counsel" status at the firm where I was working and to join the faculty of the University of Connecticut Law School, an institution from which I had graduated 24 years before. And my first semester as an academic was a true education, both for my students and for me.

Of course, there was the usual adjustment when one moves from the private sector to the public. My office is about the size of the supply closet at my old firm (though not quite as well appointed). My income is considerably less than I used to pay in taxes, and I am still getting used to the idea that most of the rules that I have to follow every day are set by the folks who lock the doors, turn the heat on and off, process the mail, run the computer system, open and close the library, and provide the myriad other functions and support without which no institution could operate. It's not that I can't adapt to having my cheese moved. I have no cheese.

Why would anyone do this? Well, for starters, I have been able to share with two classes of bright and eager first-year students their first exposure to rule-based reasoning, how judges decide cases, and how societal values shape legal and moral choices as well as outcomes. I could not have imagined the joy of being there when the light finally clicked on; my charges began to synthesize the disparate elements of legal rules, case facts, and civil procedure into a cohesive whole; and they learned how to convey their understanding through good legal writing. In addition, I have been able to immerse myself in the law and explore the underlying questions of how our society makes rules and governs itself. These are pleasures so great that, if they wanted me to pay for the experience of teaching, I would gladly do so.

On top of all this, I have attended wonderful workshops and discussions on topics as disparate and diverse as the viability of the death penalty as anything other than revenge, the purpose of the business judgment rule, the history of slavery and the appropriateness of reparations to Africa, relativism and rationalism as concepts necessary to understand Islamic fundamentalism, race-based preferences in law school admissions, and the hermeneutics of judging. I think it is fair to say that in the last six months I have examined law and lawyering more thoroughly and with more pleasure than in the many years since I left the academy and joined the "real" world.

Will I do this for the rest of my career? Who knows? I have been approved for appointment to the trial court bench, and if the Governor calls, I'm probably going to answer. However, if in five or 10 years I find myself right where I am today, I hope that I will continue to feel that I am giving as much to this profession as I have been lucky enough to receive.