Law School Faculty Praises Alumnus Learned Hand, Retiring from Bench

Members of the Law School faculty yesterday paid tribute to Judge Learned Hand '93, LL.B. '26, who is retiring next week from his senior position on the Second Circuit of the United States Circult Court of Appeals. The teachers called him one of America's greatest jurists.

Professor Archibald Cox '34, who served as Hand's law clerk said that. The opinions of Judge Hand have had significant influence in breaking down the restrictions imposed by the dry literalism of conservative tradition and in showing how to use with sympathetic understanding the information afforded by legislative and administrative processes."

Hand did this, Cox noted, by breaking away from the formal wording of laws, and by interpreting them according to the effect Congress intended for them.

Austin W. Scott, Dane Professor of Law said that Hand is "One of our greatest judges--a man who combines all the features necessary to a great jurist: those of the lawyer and the philosopher who studies all matters."

Other went even further in Hand's praise. University Professor Zechariah Chafee Jr. termed Hand perhaps one of the greatest figures in the history of jurisprudence in America and England.

"He probably made distinct contributions in more branches of law--public, corporation, unfair competition, equity and freedom of speech--than any other man," Chafee remarked.

Master of Law

Paul A. Freund, Fairchild Professor of Law said that "Hand is a master of law in all its phases. His quality of expression, his literary style, reflected his quality of mind. He preached the pith of the case by the shortest possible route. Everything Hand touched, from civil rights to patent cases, was given a dignity and an elevation of spirit.

"His greatest contribution to law was his attitude toward law in all its phases. His opinions were philosophical treatments, almost like Holmes', which gave any legal issue a universal importance."

Hand was graduated summa cum laude in philosophy from the College. He worked on the Advocate and gave the Phi Beta Kappa address at his Commencement.

In 1909, he was appointed to the New York Federal District Court.

President Calvin Coolidge appointed him in 1924 to the Circuit Court. Hand has held the title of Senior Judge since 1939.