University of Texas School of Law - Peregrinus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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Portrait: Charles Alan Wright One only has to enter Charles Alan Wright’s office to get a feel for what presence this well-renowned professor brings to The University of Texas at Austin School of Law. The walls of his office leave little room for decorations as they arc already adorned wilh the numerous awards and achievements given him over the years. These accolades not only dictate the career of one of the most respected legal scholars in the country, they also make a statement of what one’s passion for the law can achieve. You don’t, however, have to go to his fourth floor office to become familiar with his influence on the legal community. For one thing, if you go to any law library and ask for assistance on a federal civil procedure question, you will most likely be directed to Wright and Miller texts on civil procedure. These legal texts virtually make federal civil procedure synonymous with Wright’s name. If you open any West Publishing casebook you will find an advisory board listing for the casebook series which includes Professor Wright’s name among twelve of the most respected legal acadcniians. Additionally, if you know anything about the football scene at The University, you probably know about the most successful football team in Texas, the famous Legal Eagles, an intramural football team consisting of law students. This team has established a winning tradition that has flourished since Professor Wright took the reins as head coach 38 years ago. Finally, one only has to listen to the conversations of most law students who have taken Professor Wright for Federal Courts, Remedies or Constitutional Law to really understand the respect his classes draw. Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Professor Wright’s travels have taken him to various points across the country. When he graduated from by David Garza Wesleyan College at the young age of nineteen in 1947, he was not quite sure what path he was going to follow. After receiving advice from a government professor at Wesleyan and witnessing numerous friends going off to study law. Professor Wright realized law was a field he had found very interesting. As a result, he attended law school at Yale University and after only the first few weeks of school was very excited in his choice to pursue a legal career. Upon graduation, he immediately began a clerkship with Judge Charles E. Clark of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Once this clerkship ended in 1950, he went directly into teaching at The University of Minnesota where he remained until 1955. Around that time, Professor Wright was invited to The University of Texas School of law as a visiting professor by long-time Texas faculty member Jerry Williams, a professor who later became a judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Professor Wright liked Austin as soon as he began teaching at UT. At the end of his first semester he accepted a full lime faculty position offered by Page Keeton, dean of the Law School at that time. To this day, Professor Wright continues his teachings at The University and currently holds the William B. Bates Chair for the Administration of Justice. Looking back at his career. Professor Wright considers his successful participation in the United States Supreme Court case of San Antonio Independent School Dutrict v. Rodriguez to be his most memorable professional achievement. “My friends thought I had no chance at all in the case,” reflected Wright., but I still won the case in a 5-4 decision which gives an indication of the quality of the advocacy needed to have that successful outcome.’’ To date, Wright has argued twelve cases before the United States Supreme Court and still many more before courts of appeals and various state supreme courts. The demand for his legal instruction has not been limited to Texas. Professor Wright has taught as a visiting professor at such esteemed institutions as Yale, Harvard, Michigan, and The University of Pennsylvania. His teaching prowess has also brought him foreign acclaim, as he has also held teaching positions at prestigious British universities — most notably, The University of Cambridge and The University of Kent at Canterbury. Indeed, the subtlety of his intellect and his grasp of the law is such that he was consulted by counsel for the President of the United ' States in 1973. Of the many honors that he has received over the years, one that Professor Wright holds in high regard was his being recognized in March of 1989 with a Texas Law Week dedication. Also in 1989, Professor Wright was distinguished with the Fellows Research Award from the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. This prestigious award is given once a year to individuals for a lifetime of excellence in research. More recently, he was honored in the spring of 1992 by the Espiscopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin which presented him with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. With all the awards and achievements, Professor Wright attributes much of his success to the simple formula of both hard work and efficiency. In particular. Professor Wright states that he has “an uncanny memory for remembering cases and their cites and “an ability to work very quickly. Though active in outside cases, Professor Wright’s first passion remains to be teaching. One of his favorite teaching memories involved a student he once had in one of his federal courts classes in the mid-70s. In particular, he 4 — Charles Alan Wright

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The Legend of the Peregrinus The Peregrinus, patron saint of The University of Texas .School of I .aw, had its beginning in the Equity class taught by Judge W. S. Simpkins in 1918. Here’s the way Simkins told the story: “Many years ago I was trying to explain to the class in Equity the origin of the system in Rome and the source of equity in the Roman Empire. At that time, fledglings just from the high schools were admitted to the Law School. Many of them had never heard of the Roman Empire, and not a few spelled cow with a “K.” “Well, 1 explained to them that when Rome conquered a nation it was incorporated into the Roman Empire — that the Roman citizen was not subject to the laws of these incorporated nations — that in due course commerce sprang up between the citizens of Rome and barbaric nations, and there was no law to determine and settle their con- tractural relations. The Roman Emper-ior, to settle the troubles arising out of the fact that there was no law applicable to control their contracts, appointed a Praetor or chancellor to travel among those nations and to settle all disputes without reference to the laws of Rome, or of the incorporated nations, but to do justice and decide all disputes, alone by the conscience of the Praetor. Peregrinating from one nation to the other, he was called the Praetor Peregrinus. “The boneheads of the class evidently thought that Peregrinus was an internal organ of the body for they continually greeted each other with ‘How’s your Peregrinus today?’ This fact seems to have developed the humorous side of the incident, and Russell Savage developed a concrete expression of it on the blackboard and thus the tradition begin.'' While various descriptions have been given over the years of the Peregrinus, Julien Elfenbein, editor of the 1918 Cactus, got his description from Simkins of the original Peregrinus: “Perry is a creature of Equity. With his enormous tail he brushes aside all technicalities in favor of Justice. With the long pointed beak, he delves into the intricacies of the relevant and the irrelevant for the Truth. On his left forefoot is the Irish’s ditcher’s boot, confessing his membership in the rank and file. He puts his ‘right foot foremost’ and it is adorned with an expensive ‘Stacy Adam’ shoe (evidently a lot of force in 1918). The boxing gloves (on the hind feet) back up the law and Equity. His eye is all-seeing and his line head is crowned with the white cap of Truth.’’ Simkins also explained that Perry’s arched back, in the attitude of springing, indicates that the law is ever ready to protect the right or prevent wrong. The I-cgcnd of the Pcrcgriiiu — 3

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was at that time teaching a 1966 ease which he had been teaching for many years. It was a case on which he had written several opinions. During that particular class, one of his students posed a question to him that had never been asked previously. He in his years of lecturing on that case had never heard anyone pose such a fresh and unique question. In fact, he knew that other legal commentators had not posed such a question nor discussed it in that same context. It is these same fresh perspectives and sharp questions that keep the study of law challenging and keep Professor Charles Alan Wright in the classroom. As Professor Wright notes, “There are so many bright young men and women out there and they think of things that no one has ever thought about in the past. “A professor can’t just sit back on tired old notes. I know I am going to be challenged by very bright minds in the classroom,” Wright said. Professor Wright continues to teach at The University and plans to continue in this endeavor in his near future. In May, Professor Wright also plans on assuming the role of President of the American Law Institute, a position he hopes to maintain until the beginning of the next century. In addition to these C rgi Bniftt vocations. Professor Wright still aspires to add more books to his distinguished library of publications. When asked in retrospect if he would have changed anything in his career or pursued a different path. Professor Wright responded “I love teaching and I believe I have the best possible job. I can teach, which I enjoy immensely and I can write books, which I find very pleasant and exciting and I can participate in outside cases, which gives me a competitive clement.” Most importantly, Professor Wright enjoys doing all of this at The University. We at The University of Texas School of Law are very glad he feels that way. Charles Alan Wright — 5