Gu Law Graduates Told To Fight Frivolity Don’t Let Courts Become Substitute For Common Sense, Gregoire Says

Unrealistic expectations are being placed on the U.S. legal system, state Attorney General Christine Gregoire told Gonzaga Law School graduates on Saturday.

The nation’s courts must “look beyond the view of the day” to protect basic constitutional values, Gregoire told 164 law school grads and their families.

Many people have expectations that laws or the legal system cannot meet, Gregoire said.

Quoting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, the state of Washington’s chief lawyer said the “real value of the practice of law is to serve people fairly and solve real problems.”

The new lawyers from Gonzaga are entering the profession at a fascinating time, but one which presents critical challenges, she said.

Gregoire, who graduated from the law school in 1977, was given an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at Saturday’s law school graduation.

She was cited for her distinguished legal career which includes serving as state Ecology director and then attorney general.

At the same ceremony, the school’s law medal was awarded to longtime professor and administrator Vern George Davidson.

He was cited for two decades of work at the law school and for steadfastly espousing the interests of students.

In her remarks, Gregoire said some legal scholars suggest all the exciting legal issues were decided in the 1960s by the Warren Court, and that issues of the 1990s are “just dry toast.”

“I would suggest to you, that’s nonsense,” the attorney general said.

Her staff of attorneys general, for example, is doing legal battle over these issues:

Do voters in Washington have the right to impose term limits?

Can church services be conducted in public schools?

Is hanging cruel and unusual punishment?

Can gay couples be prevented from adopting children?

“There is no end to the legal issues we face,” Gregoire said.

But the legal system can’t solve every problem of the home, family or community, she said.

Many of those problems come about, she said, because of a prevalent attitude that suggests “if it is not illegal, it is just fine.”

“The law cannot be a substitute for common sense values and morality,” Gregorie said.

The legal profession’s reputation is tarnished today when the “unrealistic expectations” are packaged into “frivolous lawsuits,” the speaker said.

She referred to a suit in which a woman sued an airline for $5 million because her dog was put on the wrong plane. The woman sued for false imprisonment and intentional infliction of pain and suffering.

Gregoire also drew chuckles when she talked about another lawsuit, filed by a 360-pound woman, who sued a movie theater because its seats were too narrow.

Gregoire said many Gonzaga law school graduates have gone on to distinguished careers, including a 1977 classmate of hers who practices law in a small Connecticut town and devotes one-fifth of his time to helping poor clients.

She also acknowledged Smithmoore “Smitty” Myers, whose distinguished legal career included being dean of the Gonzaga Law School and serving as U.S. Magistrate.

“He has never lost sight of his first love, teaching law,” Gregoire said of Myers, who watched the graduation in Gonzaga’s Martin Centre.