21903 TWLS summer2000 - Texas Wesleyan School of Law - Texas ...

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Story by John Veilleux “The school has managed itself very, very well. The new dean, Richard Gershon, is a perfect fit for the school. ... He brings an aggressive attitude to the table, and if he does what I think he’s going to do, he’s going to move the school up the scale and bring a lot of credibility during his tenure.” Gary Edd Fish, M.D. Class of 1995 a passion for learning ■ You say there aren’t enough hours in the day? Wait until you meet alumnus Dr. Gary Edd Fish. He may change your mind Meet Gary Edd Fish, M.D., ’95. To say the least, he’s not the typical Texas Wesleyan University School of Law alumnus. In fact, he says he doesn’t have any plans to practice law, which will seem even more strange in a moment. For the last 22 years, he has been an ophthalmologist with Texas Retina Associates. But he said his mother always told him he should become a lawyer. So one day in 1992, while traveling down Central Expressway in Dallas, Fish saw a billboard for the DFW School of Law, the School of Law’s name before Texas Wesleyan University acquired it later that same year. Photo by John Veilleux “This is probably an ad for billboards,” Fish said with a warm smile and a laugh. “But I was driving down the highway, and I saw this big sign for DFW School of Law just south of LBJ. Later that afternoon I called the school, and that was it.” Fish said he considered Southern Methodist University School of Law, but ultimately chose Texas Wesleyan because of its night program. “A partner of mine, Dwain Fuller, decided to go at the same time,” he said. “He went to SMU, but I can tell you that it was a lot more disruptive for him. I looked at SMU because I live by the school, but I wanted a night program, which they didn’t have. That’s what sold me on Texas Wesleyan because I didn’t 28 Wesle esle esley esle an an La Lawy La wy wyer wy er • Summer 2000 Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
want school to disrupt my practice. It took my partner a lot longer to graduate because he had to take day classes.” So now that you’ve briefly met Gary Fish, M.D., it seems only fair to reintroduce him as Gary Fish, M.D., J.D. But you still haven’t heard the entire story. You see, after Fish earned his J.D. in 1995, he needed another challenge. So what does a doctor with a passion for learning do? “I went to the University of Houston and started an LL.M. in health law,” Fish said. “I have all of my hours, but I haven’t finished my thesis yet. I finished my hours for the LL.M. in 1997, so you can see how fast I’m galloping toward that goal.” Though Fish is jokingly hard on himself for not yet finishing his thesis for his LL.M., he has a pretty good reason for not finding the time. Fish, please understand, doesn’t make excuses, though he seemingly could, especially in light of the fact that when he said, “I went to the University of Houston …” he forgot to mention that he came back that night, and every other night that he attended school there. “I still didn’t want law school to interrupt my practice, so I flew down at night,” he said. “Needless to say, it was a little more disruptive to my practice than Texas Wesleyan. It was pretty vigorous, but I did earn a lot of Southwest Airlines miles.” And with all those Southwest Airlines miles in the bank, one might think that Fish would be ready to take a well-deserved vacation. If you do, then you would be wrong because with an M.D., J.D. and a thesis away from an LL.M., Fish’s educational aspirations aren’t finished yet. In 1997, he enrolled in the M.B.A. program at SMU, which he completed last year. At this point you might be asking what drives Fish to pursue his seemingly unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Fish’s answer came without hesitation. “The bottom line is that it’s fun,” he said. “It’s also competitive, which makes it even more fun. It’s like sports for an uncoordinated guy.” Of course, this self-described “uncoordinated guy” can’t be too uncoordinated because he is an avid runner who has run many marathons, most recently, the Boston Marathon last April. If, by now, you haven’t reached for a calculator to add up the hours in a day and asked Texas Wesleyan University School of Law Gary Edd Fish, M.D. Class of 1995 yourself where Fish finds the time to run his medical practice, go to school and take part in marathons, don’t bother. Fish said time has never been an issue. “All my schooling was minimally disruptive,” he said. “You’re always doing something with your time. I just did that [school] instead of what other people usually do. Just about everybody stays up until 10 at night. And most of the time, it is doing something fairly unproductive like watching TV. I can tell you this – I watch zero TV.” Zero TV is exactly what Fish means. In fact, the last show Fish can recall following is the highly rated sitcom All in the Family. He was crushed when I told him it was no longer on the air. “There could be a new show on TV, and I would not know about it for 15 years,” he said. “If you don’t watch TV, for the average person, that could free up three hours every night. It’s just a matter of what you spend your time doing.” Fish has certainly found a passion to fill his time. And his time in school is time he considers productive and well spent. “I learned things that I like to learn, and I made a lot of friends that I would not have made otherwise. They’re [fellow students] all good people. For instance, the people who are going to Texas Wesleyan are driven people. They’re the kind of people I want to be around.” As for Texas Wesleyan and the direction the law school has taken of late, Fish said the school, the only school he graduated from in which he is actively involved, is growing stronger with each passing year. “The school has managed itself very, very well,” he said. “The new dean, Richard Gershon, is a perfect fit for the school. His task is to move the law school way up the totem pole. “There are 181 ABA-approved law schools, and Texas Wesleyan just received its accreditation, so it’s coming in at the bottom. He [Gershon] brings an aggressive attitude to the table, and if he does what I think he’s going to do, he’s going to move the school up the scale and bring a lot of credibility during his tenure.” And now that you have met Fish, it seems only fair to reintroduce him formally one more time. Thus, meet Gary Edd Fish, M.D., J.D., M.B.A., B.A. As for the LL.M., the thesis, to be sure, is on its way. ■ “All my schooling was minimally disruptive. You’re always doing something with your time. I just did that [school] instead of what other people usually do. Just about everybody stays up until 10 at night. And most of the time, it is doing something fairly unproductive like watching TV. I can tell you this – I watch zero TV.” Gary Edd Fish, M.D. Class of 1995 Wesle esle esley esle an an La Lawy La wy wyer wyer er • Summer 2000 29
Page 2 and 3: inside Wes eyan Lawyer features 4
Page 4 and 5: Story by John Veilleux “Wesleyan
Page 6 and 7: Story by John Veilleux “After fin
Page 8 and 9: Photo by John Veilleux Upon enterin
Page 10 and 11: State Bar after the ceremony at the
Page 12 and 13: in academia ■ Notes about Texas W
Page 14 and 15: Received the 1999-2000 Upper Class
Page 16 and 17: Professor Malinda Seymore has been
Page 18 and 19: It can easily be argued that an att
Page 20 and 21: Courts all over the country have in
Page 22 and 23: Story by John Veilleux “I told my
Page 24 and 25: alumni news & notes ■ A digest of
Page 26 and 27: Scott Cornuaud has joined the Hunt
Page 30 and 31: State representative Phillip S. Kin
Page 32 and 33: hooding 2000 ■ Pictures from the
Page 34 and 35: Annual Fund West Society $10,000 or
Page 36: Thank You, President Schrum Texas W

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