Law School Seeks Return to Tradition -- 04/08/1999

Law School Seeks Return to Tradition

08 April, 1999

By Justin Torres
CNS Senior Staff Writer

(CNS) – "First thing we do," wrote William Shakespeare in Henry VI, Part II, "let's kill all the lawyers."

Despite a list of respected attorneys from history that includes Sir Thomas More, Clarence Darrow, and most of the Founding Fathers, the reputation of lawyers and the law have not increased greatly since Shakespeare penned his lines.

Tom Monaghan objects to that notion. And he's putting his money where his mouth is.

Monaghan, founder and former chairman of Domino's Pizza, who recently sold the company for upwards of $900 million, announced today that he has founded the Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Named for the Latin translation of "Hail, Mary," the Catholic law school will open its doors in the fall of 2000, offering a comprehensive legal curriculum grounded in traditional Anglo-American law and the social teachings of the Catholic Church.

"The motto we have chosen, Fides et ratio, is Latin for 'faith and reason,'" said Monaghan today. "This motto will demonstrate our belief that one can pursue both academic excellence and a strong religious conviction."

A lifelong Catholic, Monaghan told CNS that Ave Maria is an extension of his longtime interest in Catholic education and traditional morality. "I feel that's there's a lot of room for improvement in Catholic education at all levels, especially handing on the faith."

Monaghan had hoped to found a law school at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio, but the school declined to start a law program. So Monaghan, through the Ave Maria Foundation he heads, decided to open the school on the grounds of a new campus of Catholic schools in Ann Arbor.

Conservative legal experts have applauded the school's decision.

"There is right now a two-fold crisis of belief in law," said Gerard Bradley, a professor at the University of Notre Dame School of Law and a member of Ave Maria's Board of Governors. "One part of that crisis is with lawyers themselves. I've been teaching law for sixteen years, long enough to have students who are in the midst of their careers, and I know that there are very few 40 to 45 year-old lawyers who are happy. There's dissatisfaction with the practice of law, the way lawyers treat each other, the hours required to practice.

Bradley continued, "The second part of the crisis is the moral crisis in our culture. It is my firm conviction that no other law school is nearly as well-positioned to deal with and affect that crisis than Ave Maria."

Bradley describes Ave Maria's mission as training "young people to become lawyers–competent, honest, upright lawyers–but train them to believe in lawyering as a vocation, as a participation in the transcendent purpose that God has for each of us in the world."

Monaghan has assembled a nationwide group of experts to assist in opening the school, including the appointment of Dr. Bernard Dobranski, dean of the Catholic University of America School of Law, as the first dean. Thomas Morgan of the Brigham Young University School of law and Ira Fink of Ira Fink & Associates, a top university design expert, will serve as consultants to the fledgling school. The law library will be designed with the assistance of S. Blair Kauffman, the library director at the Yale University School of Law.

Dobranski told CNS that a recognition of the connection between law and morality will be central to the school's curriculum. "We'll expect the law school community to discuss and research those kinds of questions," he said.

The religious focus of the school, said Dobranski, won't crowd out the establishment of high academic standards. "There'll be very little difference between Ave Maria and other schools, but where there is a difference, it'll be a big one. We'll expect our students to meet and exceed all the requirements to pass the bar and be a competent practicing attorney."

Monaghan says that while the school will be "firmly Catholic," the school will accept students of all–or no–faiths.

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