"Boundless energy, enthusiasm, passion for justice, and high standards" -Linda F

I met Vanessa Merton nearly thirty years ago, shortly after joining the Pace faculty to direct the Health Law and Policy Program. Vanessa made a powerful first impression, and that impression has never faded. Her boundless energy, enthusiasm, passion for justice, and high standards for herself and her students were manifest from the beginning. Vanessa was inspiring and supportive. She had a huge Rolodex (such a quaint concept now) and she was extraordinarily helpful in organizing conferences and expanding the interdisciplinary aspects of the health law program. Vanessa introduced me to Merrill Rotter, M.D., and Scott Rogge, M.D., two distinguished forensic psychiatrists who regularly contributed to the mental disability law course as well as conferences on law and medicine. I recently ran across a 2000 Pace Law Review Symposium that published the proceedings of a conference to which Vanessa made major contributions. Its subject, “Playing the Psychiatric Odds: Can We Protect the Public by Predicting Dangerousness?” is as important today as it was more than twenty years ago.

Vanessa has always seemed to know everyone, including eminent lawyers in practice and renowned academics. At conferences, I have frequently encountered professors whom I didn’t know, but who knew Vanessa. Our conversations followed a familiar pattern: first, the professor would sing Vanessa’s praises, then inquire about her latest accomplishments, and, finally, ask to be remembered to her. Vanessa is particularly revered in the clinical world. She influenced many clinical professors through the power of her example; she also encouraged those of us who were not clinicians to engage our students in self-reflection and to explore the real world implications of the doctrinal subjects they were studying. Vanessa has never been apologetic for demanding so much from her students. Her motto is, in effect, that the students should be happy to know that they are getting their money’s worth from her, because she provides them with so much feedback. It is indeed a motto to inspire us all.

Linda F