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\\jciprod01\productn\D\DCR\16-1\DCR106.txt unknown Seq: 2 11-FEB-13 12:312 UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA LAW REVIEWuncomfortably. This is what drew people to Gary and what they desired to emulatein their own lives.Many readers of this symposium edition will have had no direct contact withGary Bellow and have heard little or nothing about his work. So I begin thisintroduction to the really exciting and valuable work of the Bellow Scholars bydevoting a few pages to the words of some of Gary’s colleagues, students, andclose friends whose recollections capture the energy, whole-hearted engagement,and relentless critique of all forms of complacency that Gary brought to hiswork: 4Gary’s penchant for constant criticism and reflection resulted from his understandingthat the kind of mitzvot that he had dedicated his life to, andthat those of us working for him were striving to carry out, required a lotmore than just good intentions. Complex skills, hard work, and high standardswere also required. Gary pissed off a lot of people when he harped onit, but that’s the lesson that he taught to the do-gooders in the legal servicesworld, and to his staff and his students: that a big heart alone was notenough. You had to put in the work if you wanted to be a good lawyer, ifyou wanted to change the world. 5Gary was not a saint. It’s not just that, unlike Mother Teresa, Gary liked togamble—to mention only the most mentionable. His friendship was notsaint-like either. Gary did not offer you a soft, enveloping embrace . . . Garydidn’t return your phone calls, sometimes he made you mad. . . . SometimesGary’s critical stance would hurt his friends and allies, even hurt the peoplehe loved. But the hurt was the pain of his constant challenge, a challenge hedemanded as much of himself as he did of others. . . . To live the kind of lifethat Gary lived, we wouldn’t have to represent Black Panthers or createlegal services for the poor. We wouldn’t have to have the incredible couragewith which he faced his heart transplant and its aftermath. We would simplyhave to realize that no aspect of our lives, no human interaction, no problemwe face has to be treated as routine. Everything can be engaged; everythingcan be transformed. 6I have constantly marveled at Gary’s ability to incorporate his moral andpolitical commitments into his lawyering. . . . [One] cold Friday beforeChristmas a tenant in a nearby three-decker came to say that she had noheat. [M]ost lawyers would . . . respond, “There’s nothing I can do to helpyou.” . . . A few would probably help by trying to get a TRO ordering the4 MEMORIAL CELEBRATION OF MAY 25, 2000, http://www.garybellow.org/Memorial/cover.htm(last visited Dec. 1, 2012).5 David Grossman, Gary’s friend, former student, and colleague at the Legal Services Center.6 Gerald Frug, Gary’s friend and colleague at Harvard Law School.
\\jciprod01\productn\D\DCR\16-1\DCR106.txt unknown Seq: 3 11-FEB-13 12:31FOREWORD: THE WORK OF THE BELLOW SCHOLARS 3landlord to restore heat. . . . Gary took a different approach. He startedcalling plumbers . . . [and] found one who would talk to him. I forget whathe said, though I am sure he mentioned Christmas, the cold and the client’syoung children . . . he didn’t say anything about the client being on welfare.. . . Then just when I thought the conversation was over Gary said tothe plumber, “There’s one more thing. You might not get paid.” . . . Icouldn’t believe that, having achieved this miracle of persuasion, he wasgoing to risk blowing everything by making the plumber aware of this fact.There was a pause that seemed to me to last a long time, then the plumbersaid “I know.” He went out and fixed the boiler. Of all the vicarious thrills Ifelt at Gary’s many successes, none was stronger than the one I felt whenthe plumber said “I know.” It wasn’t enough for Gary that the plumber dothe right thing. Gary wanted to give him an opportunity to do it for the rightreason, as an act of charity or solidarity rather than as an effect of Gary’smanipulative capacities. Gary was no patsy. He could be as tough with adversariesas any lawyer I’ve known. But he had an extraordinary capacity torecognize and respect people’s humanity, even when they were sitting onthe other side of the table. 7Gary was a teacher in practice at the D.C. Public Defender Service and atCRLA long before he entered the academy. In the best traditions of the professionhe taught from his own practice in the law office more than in the classroom,though he had an uncanny ability to bring the strategic, ethical, and moral dilemmasand challenges of law practice into the classroom. His concept of the clinicalmethod involved, at its core, expert practitioners working shoulder to shoulderwith novices in a real world professional setting—directing, advising, supporting,and deconstructing the novice’s early experiences in the lawyer role. Expert practitionerswould, in turn, open their own practice to observation, questioning andcritique by their mentees and, in complete candor and with all the precision theycould muster, critically assess both the instrumental and the expressive dimensionsof their lawyering work. 8 This was the learning process that we developedand practiced at the Legal Services Center. The following reflects one student’s7 Bill Simon, Gary’s friend, former student, and a member of the founding faculty at the LegalServices Institute. The Institute—the neighborhood law office we founded at Harvard as a center forexperimentation in the delivery of legal services—had several names throughout its history. Originallythe Legal Services Institute, the Institute was renamed the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center in1993 after the law firm provided support for a new building. Following a 2004 merger between Haleand Dorr and Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, the Center began a third iteration as the WilmerHaleLegal Services Center. See MEMORIAL CELEBRATION, supra note 4; see also THE WILMERHALE LE-GAL SERVICES CENTER, http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/clinical/lsc/index.htm (last visited Dec.1, 2012).8 Gary Bellow, On Teaching the Teachers: Some Preliminary Reflections on Clinical Educationas Methodology, in CLINICAL EDUCATION FOR THE LAW STUDENT: LEGAL EDUCATION IN A SERVICESETTING 374, 374 (Council on Legal Educ. for Prof’l Responsibility ed., 1973).R
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