Law School Honors Dean Schwab
On April 23, students, staff, and faculty came together to celebrate the tenure of Stewart J. Schwab, Allan R. Tessler Dean and professor of law, and to formally open the new academic wing, one of his most significant accomplishments in ten years leading the Law School.
“It is fitting that these two events should be combined, as it is due to Stewart’s vision, leadership, and tireless efforts that this building project has come to fruition,” said Barbara J. Holden-Smith, vice dean and professor of law, delivering the opening speech in the school’s new 170-seat auditorium. “The need for the space had been obvious for years before Stewart became dean. But he made sure it actually happened.”
Following a slide show of Schwab’s career, beginning with his arrival as a young, bearded, newly appointed professor in 1983, and closing with an older, wiser dean addressing the graduating Class of 2013, Holden-Smith offered her list of Schwab’s major achievements. He oversaw the renewal and growth of the faculty; improved the Law School’s connections with the rest of the university; increased its academic partnerships to more than two dozen institutions around the world; created clinics in international human rights, juvenile justice, labor law, LGBT rights, and securities law; expanded the business law curriculum and the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies; and helped found the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice, the Clarke Business Law Institute, the Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East and Africa, and the Cornell e-Rulemaking Institute.
Stepping up to the lectern, Kevin Clermont called Schwab “our Sun King” and described the new addition as “not quite the Versailles of Louis XIV, but pretty darn nice.”
“From the envisioning to the groundbreaking to today, Stewart has gotten his hands dirty with work, to be sure,” said Clermont, Robert D. Ziff Professor of Law and chair of the building committee. “He prioritized the need for new space. He explored the very diverse alternatives for satisfying the need. He assembled the teams to realize his choice. And he pushed this Phase I to completion. It is only Phase I, but it achieves a lot: It dramatically reorients our building and finally integrates the courtyard into the structure. It facilitates way-finding, as architects like to say. And it fosters that sense of community that Stewart has done so much to enhance.”
Next came Alex Harris, past president of the Cornell Law Student Association, with another list of Schwab’s accomplishments: inviting the entire entering class into his home; starting the weekly perk; making himself available during office hours; adding deals seminars to the curriculum; creating a transactional lawyering competition; linking with the ILR School’s Scheinman Institute to support international arbitration; establishing Meridian 180; offering internships with judges in international courts; doubling the number of faculty members in international and comparative law; and tripling the number of international exchange programs.
“None of these would have been possible without Dean Schwab’s support,” he said. “No amount of words could ever account for all that Dean Schwab has done, but I’ll try: Dean Schwab, your selfless dedication to this school has made it a better place for all of us, and we will all be better lawyers because of you.”
Finally, it was Schwab’s turn, and after a hearty round of applause, he launched into a metaphor borrowed from one of his mentors: that being a dean is like driving a car. You have four tires—students, faculty, alumni, and administrators—and you keep moving forward until the tires wear out, or blow out, and if you’re lucky, you can switch them to the next dean with some tread still remaining. (He hesitated to call the staff a fifth wheel, and suggested they were more like the engine that kept the car running.) Then, turning serious, he talked about the new addition.
“I agree with those who say it is more important who is in the building and what goes on in the building, than the building itself,” said Schwab. “But a great building can inspire, can create connections, can bolster what we do. The hallmarks of our new East Wing are its openness, its clarity, its accessibility. These are metaphors for what we aspire to in law as well as in the Law School.”
Moving the party upstairs, with architect Ann Beha, Clermont, Harris, Holden-Smith, Associate Dean Richard F. Robinson, and a pair of big red scissors, Schwab cut the ribbon in the school’s new entrance and adjourned for coffee and pastries. By then, he must have thought the celebrations were over—but instead, they continued the next weekend, when he and his wife, Norma, met with the Law School Advisory Council in New York City, where they received another surprise.
In honor of both Stewart and Norma, the lawn above the new wing has been officially designated the Schwab Lawn. In addition, with a total gift of more than $800,000, collected from close to 100 donors, an endowed scholarship has also been established in their names. “When we undertook this project, I was told that our goals were aspirational and that I was in for a frustrating experience,” said Franci J. Blassberg ’77, chair of the Advisory Council, presenting the Schwabs with a planted rendition of the lawn and a cake covered in grassy green icing. “That could not be further from the truth. It was not a hard sell at all. I recall telling one relatively young alumna that she didn’t have to stretch to make this gift. She said, ‘I want to. It’s for Stewart and Norma. They’re the best.’ She’s right.”
“Generations of students, faculty, and alumni will be walking across the Schwab Lawn for years to come,” continued Blassberg, highlighting the space as the Law School’s link to the rest of the university. “We hope that some of them will think about the incredible contributions that Stewart and Norma have made to the spirit of our school as a haven for scholarship, teaching, public service, and intellectual engagement.”