FACULTY PROFILE THOMAS R. FRENCH Associate Dean, Law Library; Professor of Law A fond farewell after a career of teaching, and helping faculty and students As a history major at State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego, Thomas French enjoyed not only his classes, but also his work-study job at the college library. Early on, he knew that he loved being in a university atmosphere and that he loved the challenge of academic research. French’s college advisor suggested law school. “I thought he was crazy,” French remembers now. It took a while, but French did take the advice, which led him to an interesting and rewarding career in law school libraries—researching, teaching and working with faculty members and students. French came to the College of Law in 2000 as Director of the Barclay Law Library and Associate Professor of Law. He was named Associate Dean and Professor of Law in 2006. He retired this summer. French received his Bachelor’s Degree in 1971, “with the draft hanging over my head,” he says. He enlisted in the Navy and, after fulfilling his obligation, pursued his Master of Library Science degree at SUNY Geneseo. He went on to pursue his MA in History at the University of Cincinnati, where he concentrated on the history of the British Empire and Commonwealth as well as African-American history. He decided he would next head to wherever he was offered a job first—in history or in a library. French worked as a law librarian at the Chase College of Law of Northern Kentucky University—working full-time while he pursued his law degree part-time. Although he never planned on practicing law, he says he knew law school was an essential pursuit along his career path. “I learned the literature of the law,” he says. “Law school helped me understand what the students and faculty are dealing with. I certainly became more conversant in the language.” Before his tenure at the College of Law, French worked in court and academic law libraries in Ohio, Kentucky, Maine and North Carolina. While serving as the Associate Director of the Law Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, French served as a consultant for the United States Agency for International Development while it helped to establish and revitalize law library collections in the nation of Eritrea. He traveled three times to the East African nation in the years following its 1993 independence from Ethiopia. French saw a part of the world he had never really expected to see and was able to witness what it is like to develop a new legal system. The experience also sparked in him an interest in African, comparative, civil and Roman law. French traces another area of interest—Canadian Law—to his childhood. As a boy growing up in Bath, New York, he would sometimes accompany his father, a lumber dealer, on his trips to Canada to collect walnut and deliver it to far-flung places. “He knew every road between Utica and Saskatchewan,” French says. French maintained his interest in Canada and Canadian history throughout his undergraduate and graduate studies. At the College of Law, French taught Canadian Law, in addition to International, Foreign and Comparative Legal Research. When the College of Law started planning the construction of Dineen Hall, French and other colleagues traveled to leading law libraries across the country, including Villanova, Marquette and the University of Colorado, to talk to law librarians and gather ideas about what would work best at the College of Law. French had high praise for his staff who worked together to plan, pack and organize for the move into Dineen Hall. Now, other law schools are coming to visit the College of Law library, including a group from Queen Mary College at the University of London, who visited Syracuse in June. French says the most rewarding aspect of his job has always been the interaction with the students and faculty. “The challenge is to make sure the organization works to produce what people need. The best part of the job is when a faculty member or a student asks us, ‘You wouldn’t have this, would you…’ and we can say, yes we have it, or we can have it for you within a few hours.” Retirement for French will mean lots of travel—including a trip he took to New Zealand shortly after his last day, and perhaps a move to Maine. And, as fitting for a librarian, there’s something else on his agenda as well, he says: “I’ve got all the books that are stacked up that I’ve been meaning to read.” 26 | SYRACUSE LAW
“The challenge is to make sure the organization works to produce what people need.” –Thomas R. French 27
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