Shaughnessy “Pressed Us In Civ Pro”

BY JEFF HANNA

ver four decades, hundreds, if not thousands, of W&L Law’s 1Ls were introduced to the law as a discipline by Professor Joan M. (Shaun) Shaughnessy in Civil Procedure.

Shaughnessy, the first Roger Groot Professor of Law, retired in December after 39 years at W&L. When the Law School’s social media channels carried notice of her “clap out” after her last class, many former students posted comments about her impact on their lives and careers. Civ Pro was a common theme.

On LinkedIn, Katherine Suttle Weinert ’05L wrote: “I loved how much Professor Shaughnessy pressed us in Civ Pro, really forcing us to think deeply, critically, and strategically.” James D. Coleman 05L was concise: “Actually learned something useful from her in Civ Pro.”

Shaughnessy said that if pressed to choose from among all the courses she has taught, she’d rate Civil Procedure as her favorite. She liked teaching Federal Jurisdiction and Procedure and found that students enjoyed Evidence. But Civ Pro accorded her “the great pleasure of teaching 1Ls when they first come and seeing them learn a whole new way of thinking. Some people seemed to come by it almost naturally while others have a ‘Eureka!’ moment when they finally start to see things coming together.”

And for some people, the comprehension comes even later.

“I had students who would come back in the fall of their second year and tell me, ‘You won’t believe it, but this summer I worked on a motion for summary judgment!’” Shaughnessy recalled. “I would wonder, ‘Did you think I was inventing motions for summary judgment? Did you not believe there was such a thing in the world?’ But procedure takes them that way because procedural law regulates the world of lawyering, and that’s not a world they know.”

Shaughnessy entered the legal world almost by accident. As an undergraduate majoring in anthropology at the State University of New York at Binghamton, she made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take the LSATs.

“My mother wanted me to be a bilingual secretary. I took a lot of French and spent a semester in France. This was a time when people were just starting to think about what careers were open to women,” she said. “My roommate wanted to go to law school but was nervous about the LSATs. I didn’t know what the test was, but I said I’d take them with her. It is still embarrassing to admit how notthought-out that decision was.”

At the University of Chicago Law School Shaughnessy was associate editor of the law review and a member of the Order of the Coif. After gradu- ating, she joined Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York and spent five years litigating high-profile financial cases during the era of hostile takeovers. came was most of the senior people who were here when I arrived spent the rest of their careers here,” she said. “There was a whole gang of people who were here for the duration, and it was a very closeknit group. I had the great benefit of working with and learning from them.”

“If you saw ‘The Wolf of Wall Street,’ those were the cases. It was interesting enough work,” she said.

Included among that group was the late Roger Groot, whose name is on the professorship Shaughnessy holds. She valued Groot as a true mentor not only for his students but also for herself. Shaughnessy’s inaugural lecture for the Groot professorship addressed the critical role mentoring plays in professional success.

“A good mentor,” she said in her lecture, “is a treasure to be sought and once found to be prized.” She added that W&L has the prerequisites for good mentoring in place because of a tradition of putting a premium on working with students. But, she cautioned, “[S]tudents need to actively seek out mentors and faculty need to keep a lookout for students who are in particular need of guidance.”

One of Shaughnessy’s longtime colleagues, Mary Natkin, Clinical Professor of Law, Emerita, described her as reliable, supportive, selfless, incisive, and “just so damn smart.” Added Natkin: “I don’t think you can name a big thing the university has done that Shaun hasn’t had a role in. She cared about the job. She cared about her students. She is kind of the soul of the place. I honestly don’t know how it will function without her.”

Another former colleague, Mark Grunewald, the James P. Morefield Professor of Law, Emeritus, described Shaughnessy’s service to the institution as boundless. “The impact of Shaun’s career at W&L goes well beyond the Law School. Her extraordinarily good judgment and commitment to effective faculty governance made her a sought-after choice and successful member of many of the most important university committees,” said Grunewald. “At the same time, Shaun has been a leader in developing collaborative curricular arrangements between the Law School and the College through offering courses on a cross-listed basis, as well as taking on a faculty role in the Shepherd Poverty Program.”

“But after five years as a mid-level associate, it was time to leave.”

When she began looking at law school for a teaching position, W&L Law was on her radar partly because her parents, who were living in Frederick, Maryland, had friends who were W&L alumni and spoke highly of their alma mater.

“One great thing about W&L in the years after I

As a core faculty member of the Shepherd Program, Shaughnessy taught a course on child abuse and neglect for both law students and undergraduates. She said she always enjoyed getting to know and to work with faculty on the other side of the ravine.

“The size of the place helps in terms of being part of the entire community of the university,” said Shaughnessy. “But you have to want to be involved in it. I think this is a wonderful place, and I’m proud to have been part of it. I hope it continues to be a wonderful place.”