John Marshall Law School - Abstract Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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THE ABSTRACT— 1937 FEATURES i i f

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THE JOHN MARSHALL LAW SCHOOL To place a bridle on men ' s tongues so that they be restrained from calumny, without laying irksome fetters on the ordinary communications of society, and to curb the licentiousness without at the same time stamping the salutary freedom of the press, is one of the most arduous but, at the same time, valuable achievements of our law. r ,r i Mii i ' ft

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he .landlord Wit and humor are difficult elements to han- dle in a classroom. They are likely to cause embarrassment to students and sometimes to the instructor, or to escape control and work con- fusion in ranks which can provide enough of that sort of thing for themselves. But strange- ly enough, neither of these results follows Mr. Liss ' combination of elements in his course, where the ambitious scholar may learn wit, hu- mor, dramatics, real property, contracts, and the law applicable to Landlord and Tenant. True, there is occasional embarrassment; but that suffered by the student comes from an oc- casional lack of any knowledge of the law in- volved in a question, that suffered by the in- structor generally results from asking a question to which not a single mental response appears on the tablets before him on which such re- sponses should be shown. His is like the em- barrassment of a man who finds himself half way through a swell speech at the wrong banquet. In the humor and drama sections of the course, Mr. Liss turns virtuoso, and looks it, with his shock of unruly black hair and his ever-moving, just as unruly hands, pointing v ith flashing gesture his sparkling witticisms. So that everyone will start on the right foot, the rules of the course are clearly announced on the opening night, the one most heavily stressed being: Til handle the comedy — you save your strength for answering questions. Thus relative positions are definitely outlined in the beginning, avoiding the danger which exists, with virtuosity in the air, of the place being overrun with leaders in the various fields of dramatic art, and the landlord forgotten in the howls of the tenants. ity in Illinois on the law of Landlord and Ten- ant and Forcible Entry and Detainer. Mr. Liss humor is swift and fluent, some- times a flash that lights up a point which be- fore had been just another black spot in the Stygian darkness; and the penchant for the sudden association of words causing merriment displays itself in our virtuoso only during the colloquy following a question which proceeds from him. No timid seeker of information or enightenment who addresses a question to the instructor is greeted with any attempt at hu- mor. His question is carefully considered and as carefully answered. And there is always time before or after class to clear up any point on which a student has doubts after a lecture, the theory apparently being that all the instructor ' s time spent in or near the school building belongs to the student. There are in this, as in every course, hidden defects: the genius who boasts of passing exam- inations without ever cracking a book, the in- different student who, without any good reason, disturbs lectures by coming late and leaving early. These are not known to the landlord at the beginning of the term and so he cannot be held liable therefor, nevertheless he soon discovers them and takes it upon him- self to cure them in one way or another. We whose lease has terminated were glad to escape a holdover which might be considered a renewal, but this was only because of our de;ire for progress. We can look back upon a pleasant term, spent in delightful premises managed efficiently by a magnanimous landlord. — C. G. JORDAN. The semi-weekly classes move swiftly for- ward between assignments of cases to be briefed and learned from Author Liss book of Illinois cases on Landlord and Tenant Law, predigested for student consumption. The book- includes all the Illinois law on the subject and the author-instructor has absorbed, in building his book and during his twenty-two years of practice, such a wide knowledge of this branch of the law that he is the acknowledged author- EDITOR ' S NOTE: This is the first of what we hope will be a series of articles, one to appear each year in the Abstract ' , about particular courses and instructors in The John Marshall Law School. Why Jid we begin with Landlord and Tenant and Mr. Liss? Because it s an important and popular course; because Mr. Liss is an alumnus of John Marshall who has done well in his profession and well with the course; and — because we just thought of the idea, time is short, and Mr. Liss makes good copy that s easy to write. Page Ninety