“It was clear from my father’s comments that I would be crazy to choose Yale or Harvard when NYU offered what it did.” DAV I D WAS H B U R N ( ’ 5 5 )
Traditional Public Service Like many of the Root alumni from the ’50s and ’60s, Washburn and Brome went on to work for prestigious firms in the private sector. Throughout their careers, both of them have been leaders in public service and also have given back to the Law School as substantial contributors, donating money and time. Brome has been an instrumental force in bringing Roots together around the country for discussions about the Program’s financial issues and future framework, and to encourage active alumni support of the Program. An intern at the Legal Aid Society while a student at the Law School, Brome later served as Legal Aid’s board president while working as a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. According to Professor Anthony Thompson, who served as faculty director of the Program for four years beginning in 1999, Brome is emblematic of Root alumni of his generation. “The earliest generation was charged with the task of being successful in both the public and the private sector,” Thompson says. Thompson notes that the definition of public service law has been through several iterations, shaped by social and economic changes. However, he believes that certain core values and a commitment to upholding the highest standards of the law are preserved, and regardless of the generation, Root Scholars all share an “incredibly strong allegiance” to the Program.
The Life of a Great Lawyer: Five Phases
by Arthur Vanderbilt
Be a great advocate Be a wise counselor Be a leader in the activities of the organized bar Be a public servant, in some public office Be recognized as a leader of public opinion
• New York University Law Center Bulletin, November 1951, announces the arrival of the first Root-Tilden Scholars.
A Case in Point Former New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Stewart Pollock (’57), for one, felt that it was his duty to go into public service if tapped for it, which he was — literally. Pollock, who like Brome is a Law School trustee, worked in private practice for the better part of his early career, first for a firm that was a successor to Arthur Vanderbilt’s own firm, and then joining Clifford Starrett (’54), also a Root graduate, at Schenck, Price, Smith & King in Morristown, New Jersey. “I was with Schenck, trying a case before our assignment judge who (after rendering a decision against me) resigned from the bench to run for governor,” says Pollock, referring to Judge Brendan Byrne. Later that year, after Byrne won the New Jersey governor’s seat, Pollock went to file papers to appeal Byrne’s judgment and bumped into a friend who was soon to be sworn in as the New Jersey commissioner of human services. She invited Pollock to attend her swearing-in ceremony, and during the ceremony Pollock was tapped on the shoulder by a state trooper and invited to speak with Governor Byrne. “There was a huge energy shortage at this time due to the oil embargo, and the New Jersey legislature responded by making the Board of Public Utilities full time and bipartisan,” Pollock says. “The [Democratic] governor told me he needed a Republican lawyer, someone he could trust, to serve full time on this board.” The salary for this position was about a third what Pollock was making in private practice, and his oldest child was about to start college with three siblings lined up behind her. Pollock recalls losing 15 pounds in a week over the anxiety this decision caused. “What kept bugging me was that I had accepted a public interest scholarship, and one of Vanderbilt’s tenets was that you should accept public service when offered,” he says. After conferring with his wife, he committed to two years in the position.
Avalon Foundation donates $875,000 to the Law School to endow the Program permanently, and the Law Center Foundation and the University match the donation
1956
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Arthur Curtiss James Foundation makes a grant of $105,000 to support additional costs of the Program
1957 T H E L AW S C H O O L
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