SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -
William Burns Lawless Jr., former New York State Supreme Court
Justice, Dean of Notre Dame Law School, Wall Street Lawyer, and
President of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, died on
Monday, April 23, 2007 in San Francisco, Calif. He was 84. The cause
was an infection after a long illness complicated by
diabetes.
Judge Lawless was born William Burns Lawless Jr.,
in Buffalo, N.Y., on June 3, 1922. In Buffalo, he graduated from
Canisius High School. Judge Lawless began his distinguished legal
career by obtaining his juris doctorate degree from the University
of Notre Dame Law School (prior to receiving his undergraduate
degree) in 1944, where he was editor-in-chief of the Notre Dame
Lawyer. After graduating from Notre Dame, he served in the Navy in
the South Pacific. He then obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from
the University of Buffalo in 1949. He received his L.L.M. in
Constitutional Law in 1950 from Harvard University, where he studied
with the late Paul A. Freund.
When he left Cambridge, Judge
Lawless returned to his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., where he was a
partner in the firm of Lawless, Offermann, Fallon, & Mahoney.
Judge Lawless served as corporation counsel (the youngest ever) for
the City of Buffalo from 1954 to 1956. Judge Lawless served as the
President of the Buffalo City Council from 1956 to 1960, and was a
Justice on the New York Supreme Court from 1960 to 1968. While on
the New York Supreme Court, Judge Lawless authored an opinion in
1967, in the case of Sa Marion v. McGinnis, recognizing that Black
Muslimism was a religion that must be recognized in the state prison
system, and that the religious dietary needs of the Black Muslims
should be accommodated to the extent practicable.
In 1968,
Judge Lawless was appointed Dean of the Notre Dame Law School in
South Bend, Ind., where he stayed until 1971. He initiated the
London year abroad program for law students at Notre Dame, which was
one of the first of its kind. Upon leaving Notre Dame, Lawless went
to New York City where he became a partner and the Head of
Litigation at Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander. While at that
firm, Judge Lawless helped prepare Martha Mitchell, wife of John
Mitchell, President Nixon's Attorney General, for her deposition
during the Watergate scandal. He often kidded that he was the only
Democrat in the firm. Judge Lawless later moved to the firm of
Hawkins, Delafield & Wood, where he served as lead counsel in
the Municipal Assistance Corporation litigations, including the New
York City Bankruptcy.
Forever the educator, Judge Lawless
always made time to teach; in addition to teaching at Notre Dame, he
taught at the University of Buffalo Law School and Fordham Law
School in adjunct positions. In the early 1960s, he was recruited by
United States Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark, to be a faculty
member at the founding session of the National Judicial College at
the University of Colorado Law School.
Judge Lawless left
Wall Street in the early 1980s, and briefly opened his own practice
on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, before moving to Orange County,
Calif., where he once again returned to legal education as President
of Western State College of Law in Fullerton, Calif. in 1982. His
mission at the time was to help the school obtain accreditation by
the American Bar Association, which it subsequently did. In 1987,
Judge Lawless returned to the National Judicial College which had
relocated to Reno, Nevada. He served as Dean of Faculty and Director
of Operations until 1990. The National Judicial College trained
approximately 2,500 state trial judges annually.
Judge
Lawless returned to Newport Beach, Calif., where he resided until
2005, when he and his wife moved to Northern California, where he
spent his remaining years, to be closer to many of his children.
Never one to retire, he was of counsel to the firm of Capretz &
Associates, and helped start the mediation firm known as
''Judge-Net,” when he was 77.
In addition to his domestic
endeavors, Judge Lawless was a world traveler and took an active
interest in developing legal systems around the world. He consulted
with the constitutional convention of the Philippines in the early
1970s and was part of the US Attorney General's delegation to the
People's Republic of China in the summer of 1987.
Judge
Lawless was well known in the legal community across the nation.
Acknowledging the fact that he had been a Judge, lawyer, dean, and
professor, the late United States Supreme Court Justice William
Brennan once asked him, ''Bill, are you still trying to run the
entire legal profession?”
Judge Lawless married Jeanne M.
Offermann of Buffalo, N.Y. in 1944, and they had 12 children. His
first marriage ended in divorce in 1975. In 1983, he married Agnes
Keane of Brooklyn, N.Y.
A sister, Mary Lawless, predeceased
him. He is survived by his second wife, Agnes, of San Rafael and
Newport Beach, Calif.; his former wife, Jeanne, of Pine City, N.Y.;
and all 12 of his children, Sharon Lawless of Oakland, Calif.,
Barbara Lawless of San Anselmo, Calif., Billie Lawless of Cleveland,
Ohio, Cathy Lawless of Maui, Hawaii, Gregory Lawless of Arlington,
Va., Richard Lawless of San Francisco, Calif., Robert Lawless of
Orleans, Mass., Jeanne Lawless of Ithaca, N.Y., Therese Lawless of
San Rafael, Calif., John Lawless of Orleans, Mass., Maria Lawless of
Oakland, Calif., and Thomas Lawless of Madison, Wisc.; 25
grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. Of all the positions
and accomplishments he had, Judge Lawless always said that he was
most proud of his twelve children.
In lieu of flowers, the
family requests that donations be sent to support scholarships for
law students at Notre Dame to Notre Dame Law School Annual Fund,
1100 Grace Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556.
A rosary and vigil for
Judge Lawless will take place at 3 p.m., Friday, April 27, 2007, at
St. Raphael's Church in San Rafael, Calif. A memorial Mass will take
place at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 28, 2007, also at St.
Raphael's.
Published in the Cape Cod
Times on 4/26/2007. |
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