Biddleblog

ALI Reporters with William Draper Lewis (standing) in Northeast Harbor, Maine, undated.

Last spring, the American Law Institute ("ALI") created an internship designed for second-year students at Penn Law School to gain familiarity with the mission of the organization.  The initiative represents the most recent example of a long-standing partnership between the Institute and Penn Law School.

The American Law Institute was founded in 1923 in response to a perceived uncertainty and complexity in American law. An association of practitioners and scholars known as the “Committee on the Establishment of a Permanent Organization for Improvement of Law” published a study that recommended an organization be formed to improve the law and its administration.  William Draper Lewis was a member of this committee and was elected the Institute's first Director.  A longtime professor at Penn Law School and, at the time of his appointment, the institution's Dean, Lewis described the lofty aim of the American Law Institute in a 1923 report to the membership as follows:

We speak of the work which the organization should undertake as a restatement; its object should not only be to help make certain much that is now uncertain and to simplify unnecessary complexities, but also to promote those changes which will tend better to adapt the laws to the needs of life.

Although he had plenty of help, Lewis is generally credited as being the main driver behind the Institute’s mission and philosophy.  The Institute's headquarters were originally operated out of Lewis' office at the Law School.

Indira Gandhi.  Sandra Day O'Connor. Leslie Nielsen.

While one of these things is not like the other, over the years Penn Law School has hosted its fair share of luminaries that have a wide range of cultural associations.  In October 1999, the actor Leslie Nielsen (who passed away last month) paid a visit to campus, stopping by the Law School to participate in a panel discussion coordinated by former Penn Law Assistant Professor Peter Huang as part of a course he was teaching at the time called "Law and Popular Culture."  Nielsen was invited to discuss his preparation and research for "Leslie Nielsen as Clarence Darrow," a one-man performance held in Penn's Irvine Auditorium the same week. 

The Penn Law Journal covered the event, even capturing a photograph of the man holding forth about his role as the famed Scopes Monkey Trial defender and his perspectives on Hollywood. Below is a digitized image of the Penn Law Journal article that originally ran in the Winter 2000 issue.  This appears to be the best available record of Nielsen's visit to Penn Law School, as no known historical material remains.  (If you have any leads, please, contact me.)  Funnyman, dramatic actor, and Penn Law panelist: Leslie Nielsen was a veritable renaissance man. 

Thanks to my colleague, Ben Meltzer, who serendipitously came across this article while working on an unrelated research project.