"Lives you touched, students you nurtured, and lawyers who know how to care" -Marlon J W B

As I reflect, I can only write this as a letter to a mentor and friend who has left a huge mark on me, not just as a student and a practitioner but as a man.

Professor Merton,

Thank you for your care, influence, and faith in me when I had very little faith in myself. I remember flustering in your office as a jittery 1L, frustrated and riddled with self-doubt about whether I belonged in law school, much less whether I should keep going. In that first 40-minute sit-down in your office, you didn't just get me to calm down - you intellectually shook me by the collar so I could get a grip! After that reality check, I got myself together. What I remember most about your many reality checks is that “the best you can do is the best you can do.” Those words still ring true in many aspects of my life outside the law.

One of my stand-out memories was our work at Downstate Correctional Facility. It was tough trying to work through cases that presented very little (and by little, I mean microbe-sized) chance of winning. One day, as we prepared for our Individual Hearing, fearing the ultimate worst, you gave us another of your trademark reality checks: “You're not trying to win. Your client is in a place where he ran out of people who give a damn. Your client and his family are looking to you as students to give a damn, even if they're out of hope.” Some of the most pivotal lessons that grew me as a person and a professional. I learned that the difference between myself and my client is choice; it only takes a situation that I can't fathom to put me in a different place. I learned that someone's hopes are as important as the confidentiality they entrust to you, so don't play loose with it. If you have to give a client bad news, you have to. I learned that having a heart is not a weakness; it'll keep you committed. I think about it as “human lawyering.” You didn't teach us to just stick to the facts and the law, but also still practice and engage with our client on a human level; we didn't have to divorce those bits of ourselves, because you taught us to trust them.

I've kept those and many other legal and life lessons with me as I've progressed. I remember you gave me a sound kick in the pants to apply for a pilot program - the New York City Social Justice Fellowship. You wouldn't dare let me pass up that opportunity because I was afraid to take a shot. Thanks to you, I was not only accepted into that program in its inaugural class, but I've also been a proud public servant for the City and now New York State Courts. Over the years, I built a modest reputation for treating people in Court as if I could be them and to respect the dignity in the person that's my client, witness, adversary, whoever.

It's very surreal to think that you're retiring your pantsuit and felt tip pens. I'm still in a bit of denial, but you have a legacy of lives you touched, students you nurtured, and lawyers who know how to care.

I'm proud to say that you influenced my path and I'm grateful.

Thank you Vanessa,
Marlon J W B