There may be a stronger message about lawyers and history in the fact that
you can count on lawyers as people who enjoy telling and hearing stories about
the profession. Lawyers’ lounges or vacant jury rooms in county courthouses are
still places where counsel trade tales about cases and people. This is consistent
with the common law tradition, in which judges, lawyers, and law students met
in the English inns of court to debate cases and rules of law. Modern lawyers
may be wanting in our formal study of legal history, but you can generally
persuade a lawyer to tarry a moment at the courthouse to hear the end of a story
about some famous case or clever advocate. It is that spirit which motivated the
Indiana Supreme Court to invite collaboration with the Indiana Law Review to
stage this symposium.