Thanks to the efforts of Joel Seligman, Dean of the Washington University School of Law, the recent introduction of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program will help many law students finance a career in public service. But Seligman’s work in helping students afford law school is only one of his many accomplishments. He has been active for years as a pre-eminent author, scholar and legal historian.
Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Arthur Levitt joked at a law school conference that if the Library of Congress’ wing of historical documents on the nation’s markets were to burn down, the government simply could call Joel Seligman, with the request: “Could you just start from the beginning?”
To start from the beginning with Seligman’s career in law means starting with his father’s influence.
“My father had been a lawyer who very early in his career got swept up in World War II and participated in one of the non-criminal proceedings at Nuremburg. I grew up hearing stories about how he worked at the SEC during World War II at an agency called the War Production Board,” said Seligman.
In college, Seligman pursued his fascination with the government and private institutions as a student of political science, with the understanding that he would most likely attend law school.
His father played a major role in his decision to enter law school.
“My father went to Harvard Law School and died a few years before I finished college. That more than anything else encouraged me to apply to Harvard,” said Seligman.
Seligman expected to find his interests in constitutional law or labor law, but was instead fascinated with corporations.
“Somewhat to my surprise the course I liked the most at Harvard Law School was corporations. I had a wonderful professor of corporate law at Harvard Law School named Detlev Vhets. He made it clear that what corporate law was really about was the management of the most important economic entities in the country,” said Seligman.
Following his graduation from Harvard Law School, Seligman spent three years working for Ralph Nader, working on two books: one on corporate law, the other on the study of legal education.
“Unlike a lot of people who worked for Nader in cases or lobbied, I was a writer,” said Seligman.
While working for Nader, Seligman studied how federal corporate laws should be enforced, ultimately writing a 30-page memorandum on the subject that influenced the writing of a groundbreaking history of the SEC.
“When I began an academic career, I submitted something similar to that memo to a publisher and spent close to five years of my life writing a 700 page history of the SEC called The Transformation of Wall Street. That is probably the best single book I have ever worked on in my entire life,” said Seligman.
After four years as dean of the University of Arizona School of Law, Seligman stepped down from his post in 1998. He stated that his family’s roots in the Midwest played a major part in his decision to come to the WU School of Law.
Since coming to WU, Seligman has become a major part of both legal and undergraduate education. Through his course “Topics in Politics: The Supreme Court in United States History”, Seligman has tried to bring methods of legal teaching to the undergraduate level.
“An awful lot of undergraduates are interested in law. The method by which courses are taught at law school and the close analysis of statutes and cases, the question and answer process we call the Socratic method, is an effective teaching tool,” said Seligman.
Another teaching tool Seligman has employed is the use of role-playing. At a meeting of his Supreme Court class, he came dressed as Thomas Jefferson.
“We do a lot of role playing. I was trying to illustrate how cases mean different things to different parties. So I talked about Jefferson’s reaction to a very famous Supreme Court case called Marbury v. Madison,” said Seligman.
Aside from teaching, Seligman’s primary role at WU has been as dean of the school. As a dean, Seligman said, some of his greatest victories and obstacles have been in helping students afford legal education.
“I was very proud of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) we adopted a few weeks ago. My greatest frustration as a dean both at Arizona and WU is [helping students manage] the extraordinary cost of attending legal education,” said Seligman.
Seligman held high hopes for the future of WU Law School, citing the increase in admissions over the last two years.
“I am really delighted with where the school appears to be progressing right now. We are making great faculty hires and we have had extraordinary interest in our school from applicants. Our admissions applications were up 32 percent last year, and they are up 40 percent this year which is really almost unbelievable,” said Seligman.
As the influence of WU School of Law in the legal community rises, Seligman pursues the goal of providing affordable legal education and, thanks to new developments at the law school, is confident about the future.
“We have adopted new programs such as our Harris Institute for Global Legal Studies and our Center for Interdisciplinary Studies so we can make [WU Law School] the best intellectual experience we can,” said Seligman.
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