Travis Marker, the founder and director of the Scrivener’s Quill: A Center for Lawyers and Literature has brought together a team of legal experts and scholars to present on literature’s application to the practice of law. His team will show how the great literary works of our time can be used to explain our laws and policies. From To Kill a Mocking Bird to Beowulf. This CLE will weave some of the greatest writings of our time into how we practice law today.
Travis Marker is joined by Hon. Barbara Sattler, Robert E. Bjork, Bryce Dixon, Kenny Hegland, and Stephen L. Saltonstall.
The state bar of Arizona does not approve or accredit CLE activities for the mandatory continuing legal education requirement. This activity may qualify for up to 12.00 hours toward your annual CLE requirement for the state bar of Arizona, including 4.00 hour(s) of professional responsibility.
Biographies
Honorable Barbara Sattler retired in 2008 after 12 years as a judge and 17 years as a criminal defense lawyer including a stint at the Public Defender’s Office. She taught Trial Practice at James E. Rogers School of Law as an adjunct professor. Barbara began her judicial career at Tucson City Court and in 2001 was appointed to Pima County Superior Court. Besides being on the criminal and juvenile bench, she was Presiding Judge over Pima County Drug Court. After retirement Barbara served on the committee which developed Arizona’s first veteran’s court, Tucson Regional City/County Veteran’s Court, and is a consultant to the James E. Rodgers Veteran’s clinic. Barbara has written two novels about the criminal justice system, a third is expected to be available by the end of the year. She also has a blog, SOME THINGS CONSIDERED which is currently running a profile of an ex-client called The UnMaking of a Murderer. (barbarasattler.com) Barbara graduated with a JD from James E. Rogers School of Law in 1981.
Robert E. Bjork is Foundation Professor of English at Arizona State University, where he has taught since 1983 and where he has been Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS) since 1994. He earned his B.A. from Pomona College in 1971, his M.A. from UCLA in 1974 and his Ph.D. in 1979, also from UCLA. He was named Foundation Professor of English in 2009. His primary research areas are Old English poetry, modern Swedish literature, and biomedical writing; he has published 17 books and 25 peer-reviewed articles. His and R. D. Fulk’s and John D. Niles’s Klaeber’s Beowulf (the 4th edition of Frederick Klaeber’s Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg) was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2008. He is General Editor of the 4-volume The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, published in June, 2010, and he is currently working on facing-page translations of the poems of Cynewulf and of Old English sapiential and lyric poems for Harvard University Press as well as on a history of Scandinavian scholarship on Anglo-Saxon literature.
Bryce Dixon has substantial trial and appellate court experience. He is a member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum and a graduate of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy College. Bryce Dixon is a board member of the St. George Art Museum. He also teaches English composition at Dixie State University, and his law firm is a contributor to Dixie Care and Share. At University of Utah, Mr. Dixon obtained both his bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctor. He was the William H. Leary Scholar and a member of Phi Kappa Phi. Mr Dixon is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Italian.
Kenney Hegland, James E. Rogers Professor Emeritus of Law, is known for clarity, humor, and occasional insight. He has taught at Arizona with stints at Harvard and UCLA and is on the State Bar Board of Governors. His books include Introduction to the Study and Practice of Law, Trial and Practice Skills in a Nutshell, A Short and Happy Guide to Being a Lawyer,and A Short and Happy Guide to Elder Law. Barbara Sattler, his wife, insisted that he write a novel. His degrees from Stanford, Boalt, and Harvard prove you can fool some universities, some of the time, and that’s good enough for tenure.
Stephen L. Saltonstall has practiced law since 1976. He grew up in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and moved permanently to Vermont in 1980. He graduated from Harvard College where he majored in U. S. History & Literature; he was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his law degree from Northeastern University School of Law. Steve has received awards for his legal work from the American Civil Liberties Union, Sierra Club, Green Mountain Forest Watch, and the Bennington County Bar Association. He is a past President of the Vermont Bar Foundation and The Nature Conservancy, Vermont Chapter.
Travis Marker, the founder and director of the Scrivener’s Quill: A Center for Lawyers and Literature, graduated from Weber State University with a double major in English and History. Reading books helped him survive law school. He received his law degree and certificate in dispute resolution from Willamette University College of law. Mr. Marker traveled to Australia where he received a Master of Laws in dispute resolution from Bond University.
Mr. Marker is the most active scholar presenting CLE on literature’s application to the practice of law. He has presented to hundreds of attorneys throughout the United States on the subject.
Agenda:
March 2nd and 3rd
Thursday
8:50 – 9:50 am
To Kill a Mockingbird and the Myth of Southern White Chivalry
Stephen Saltonstall
Atticus Finch, the hero of To Kill a Mockingbird, is superficially a role model for the legal profession, and the noble soul played by Gregory Peck in Robert Mulligan’s film adaptation is how many lawyers would like to see themselves. But there is a darker side to the novel. Viewed in historical and sectional context, To Kill a Mockingbird is the culmination of a distinct and self-serving literary and political tradition: the Myth of Southern White Chivalry, a drawing-room version of white supremacy.
9:55 – 10:50 am
What Lawyers can learn from Beowulf
Robert Bjork
The presentation will include an introduction to the content and textual history of the poem and to the major problems scholars face in interpreting it. Bjork will read selections out loud in the original Old English and talk about how law, custom, and social protocol seem to be functioning in the poem. No knowledge of the poem or Old English is required.
11:00 – 12:00 pm.
Invisible Man and Native Son: Prejudice is Not Seeing
Bryce Dixon
Invisible Man and Native Son dramatically show two faces of prejudice. First, when we find something undesirable, we do not look at it. Minorities, homeless and old people thus become invisible. But even when a despised people are noticed, it is to use them as mere objects for gain or gratification. In their rage at their abuse and invisibility, the despised are seen again but only as objects of disruption. Lawyers should look to see the invisible people, see the wrongs they suffer and bring their stories to light. Because the despised are invisible, many people run over them and never realize that a human has been hurt. Lawyers can help bring to light the harm.
Lunch Break
12:50 – 1:50 pm
Almost Thou Persuadest Me: Elements of Effective Advocacy
Travis Marker
“Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian,” are the words of King Agrippa to the Apostle Paul in the Book of Acts in the New Testament. The words are powerful because they speak to the effectiveness of the message in conveying Paul’s point. This is one of many persuasive dialogs in history and literature. The art of delivering the argument or message effectively is the trade and ambition of attorneys. There are speeches which are eloquently delivered yet still fall short of the point. This presentation will look at notable discourses and opening statements to discuss the elements of what made them effective or ineffective in conveying their ultimate message.
1:55 – 2:55 pm
Professionalism, Flannery O’Connor and “The Man who was Thursday.”
Bryce Dixon
K. Chesterton and Flannery O’Connor provide a wonderful canon of literature in which to explore themes and ideas. In “The Man Who was Thursday” Chesterton explores a pessimistic view of the anarchist movement. A dark Gothic humanity finds itself into nearly every story by O’Connor. In connection with professionalism these works speak to the roots of incivility and why the lack of professionalism is found in the legal profession and throughout life. Mr. Dixon will lead a discussion on the works of these authors to address ways to improve professionalism in the law.
3:00 – 4:00 pm
12 Angry Men: Ethics, Evidence, and the Elimination of Bias
Travis Marker
This program will review the Twelve Angry Men, by Reginald Rose. In reviewing this play, the attendees will consider topics relating to how bias and prejudice effect the administration of justice. The program will review various aspects of prejudice which appear in the play including among others: race, age, family concepts, and social economic status.
Friday
8:50 – 9:50 am
Law School Chronicles: The Role of Legal Education in the Practice of Law
Kenny Hegland
The Preamble to the Model Rules indicates in part, “As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employ that knowledge in reform of the law and work to strengthen legal education.” Professor Hegland will use this as the premise of his discussion in connection with his novel, Law School Chronicles, which explores the evolution of legal learning and it’s application to the practice of law. He will explore with the attorneys the connection between their educations in law school and their continuing legal education by way of improvement of the law, ethics, practices strategies, and legal norms.
9:55 – 10:50 am
Anne Levy’s Last Case: Competence and the Administration of Justice
Retired Judge Barbara Sattler
In this program Judge Sattler will explore ethical rules relating to competence and the administration of justice from the backdrop of her novel, Anne Levy’s Last Case. In this work a public defender works through various dilemmas impacting her ability to practice law and effectively advocate for her client. Judge Sattler will explore in discussion the pressures on lawyers that affect their ability to practice competently under systemic, societal, familial, and inherent pressures in law and litigation.
11:00 – 12:00 pm.
A Jury of Her Peers, Ethics and Evidence
Travis Marker
This program will address with the attendees in group discussion social justice in terms of criminal defense, media trials, and sanctions by communities and peers. The attorneys will discuss Rule 2.1 and legal advocacy in terms of legal advocacy and attorney-client relations.
The short story A Jury of Her Peers will provide a backdrop to the discussion.
Lunch Break
12:50 – 1:50 pm
Billy Budd, The Bounty, Ethics, and Conflicts of Laws
Travis Marker
In The Bounty Mutiny, Mutiny on the Bounty, Mutiny on Board HMS Bounty, as well as Herman Melville’s classic Billy Budd, laws governing the ship, men, law, and conscious come into conflict. The attendees will review these three works to explore their relationship to the practice of law and legal ethics especially when there appears to be conflict between the law and legal ethics.
1:55 – 2:55 pm
Korematsu and the Ethics of Fear
Travis Marker
This program will address the case of Korematsu v. United States and the dynamics which enables Japanese citizens in the United States to be relocated to concentration camps. Attorneys will look at this discussion in connection with Rule 2.1 and the ethics as an advisor on how to deal with legal, legislative, and judicial decisions based upon fear, particularly in regards to racial or religious fear.
3:00 – 4:00 pm
The Oxbow Incident: Integrity within the Legal System
Travis Marker
In The Oxbow Incident provides a narrative of a fictional town that suffers from the breakdown of trust in the legal system. Forces in the story attempt to give back to the system and argue for the law, but the “Mob” mentality for vengeance overruns the more prudent minds leading to the hangings of three innocent players. Mr. Marker will review this story and other material in a discussion with the attendees about the legal system, the administration of justice, and the vulnerabilities in the system which can lead to mob rule and vigilante justice.
Works to be cited: The Ox-bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark; and The Man Who Shot the Liberty Valance by Dorothy M. Johnson.
The state bar of Arizona does not approve or accredit CLE activities for the mandatory continuing legal education requirement. This activity may qualify for up to 12.00 hours toward your annual CLE requirement for the state bar of Arizona, including 4.00 hour(s) of professional responsibility.
