The Magazine of The University of Montana
Email Article Raising Montana
Top Legal Lecture
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at UM Sept. 15
By Joyce Brusin, MFA '85
Editor's note: The lecture will take place on February 9, 2011, at 2 p.m.
Above: UM President George Dennison and Dean Irma Russell presented an Honorary Doctor of Law degree to Robert S. Bennett at the 2010 Commencement ceremonies May 15. Below: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
Washington, D.C., has long called Montanans away to serve. From Capitol Hill to federal courtrooms, Montanans have made their state proud.
When Washington lawyer Robert S. Bennett, whose clients have included former President Bill Clinton and journalist Judith Miller, began serving on the UM School of Law's Board of Visitors in 1995, he thought of two federal judges with Montana roots. Both Judge William Jones, who moved to Montana in 1931 to coach football at Carroll College, and Judge Edward Tamm, who grew up in Butte, earned reputations for fairness and keen judicial instincts.
In Bennett's words, they "left a very positive mark on the federal judiciary. They established themselves as judges who were deeply committed to improving the administration of our justice system." Both judges stayed connected to law students and members of the bar throughout their service.
The judges' enduring interest in students combined with his own love of Montana led Bennett to establish the Judge William B. Jones and Judge Edward A. Tamm Judicial Lecture Series at UM. Bennett wanted to increase recognition for the UM School of Law and provide Montana law students with the same prestigious lecturers who frequently visit Ivy League law schools.
"I wanted these hardworking students at The University of Montana to feel they were important enough for a Justice of the Supreme Court to come and speak to them," Bennett says.
"Bob Bennett not only envisioned the Jones-Tamm Lecture Series, he put the program in place and proved critical in recruiting candidates to speak," says former UM law school Dean Ed Eck, who worked closely with Bennett to establish the series.
Fly-fishing originally brought Bennett to Montana. At a lecture early in the series, his affection for both the state and students came together in an unexpected way.
"I went up to introduce the speaker, and there sitting in the audience I saw the young man who'd been our guide on the Smith River a few years before," he says.
Since Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor first lectured at UM in 1997, the series has brought Supreme Court Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas, as well as Chief Justice John Roberts, to UM. Bennett's brother, political commentator and radio host William J. Bennett, who served as secretary of education in the Reagan administration and directed the National Office of Drug Control Policy for former President George H.W. Bush, lectured in 2002.
On September 15, UM will welcome U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., as the eleventh lecturer in the Jones-Tamm Lecture Series. Holder, who became attorney general last year, is the first African-American to serve in the post.
"This lecture will provide valuable perspective and insight for our students, faculty, and the community at large," says Irma Russell, UM law school dean.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan, who had been a law clerk to Jones, and Montana District Court Judges Jack Shanstrom and Don Molloy have been important supporters of the lecture series, which is open to the public. Its popularity has spurred renewed fundraising efforts to see it through its next ten years.
If you are interested in contributing, call Dean Russell at 406-243-5730 or make a gift online at www.SupportUM.org. Write "Jones-Tamm Lecture Series" on the online giving form.
