Law Schools: Harvard at 150

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Dean Griswold himself is not satisfied with Harvard Law's current approach. As part of the two day sesquicentennial celebration, he sounded off on one lack that he considers paramount. Said Griswold: "It has often been said, for a smile, that legal education sharpens the mind by narrowing it. To my mind, there is more truth to this than we have been willing to admit. The methods fostered at this school and widely adopted elsewhere do have a tendency to exalt dialectical skill, to focus the mind on narrow issues, and to obscure the fact that no reasoning, however logical, can rise above the premises on which it is based. If the Harvard Law School, through its faculty activity and its teaching, could shift its concern even slightly from the generally too narrow objectives of much traditional legal scholarship, we might increase our contribution. Even in our field it may be true that 'the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.' "

As it developed, Griswold's critique proved to be his valedictory as well. At week's end, President Johnson announced his appointment as the next U.S. Solicitor General. As the nation's top trial lawyer, succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Griswold will shortly be exercising both his dialectical skill and his spirit.