Dc Dicta has just learned that a legal giant – the esteemed Harvard, Columbia and Boston University law professor Dr. Clark Byse – passed away earlier this month.

The news has a personal element for me because, like Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and David Souter, I had the pleasure of being a law school student of Prof. Byse. Byse’s spry mind, witty sense of humor (he was 83 when I was a 1L in 1995), and genuine caring about his students made Contracts class at Boston University School of Law a highlight of my time there.

The Boston Globe has a nice write up about Byse’s extraordinary life here, although curiously it leaves out the fact that Byse is widely believed to be the inspiration for the character Prof. Charles Kingsfield in the novel and film “The Paper Chase.”

The story does include one of my favorite Clark Byse facts: how getting a mention in the film “Quiz Show” led him to reconnect with an old sweetheart from 50 years before – and then marry her.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Legal celebs, Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.