During the summer of 1981 I was employed as a law clerk at the Philadelphia firm of Sagot & Jennings. I had completed my second year of law school in May of that year.
On Friday July 3, 1981 the head partner gave me a research assignment. He asked me to find the parallel citations for several cases that had been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. He needed the citations for a pleading.
I headed over to the Jenkins Law Library which was located a few blocks from the firm's office in downtown Philadelphia. When I arrived at the library it was closed for the Fourth of July holiday.
I thought, what should I do? I knew I was near the law office of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius. I decided to go to the firm to see if I could use their law library.
I arrived at MLB and said to a receptionist: "I work at the law firm of Sagot & Jennings. I was wondering if I could use your law library." She said: "You can't just walk in off the street and use our library. This is a private law firm. This isn't a public facility."
It just happened that there was an MLB attorney standing nearby. He had overheard me say I worked at Sagot & Jennings. He said: "You work for Leonard Sagot?" I lied: "Yes, I work for Leonard Sagot." Actually, I worked for Leonard Sagot's son, Neil Sagot, who had assumed his father's position as partner of Sagot & Jennings. In fact, Leonard Sagot was no longer associated with the firm.
The MLB lawyer said in a friendly manner, "I know Leonard Sagot." He turned to the receptionist and said, "Let him use the library."
So I trotted off to the library, got my parallel citations, then left.
When I got back to Sagot & Jennings, I gave Tom Jennings the results of my research. Tom Jennings said, "But how did you do this? The libraries are closed for the holiday." I explained that I had gone to Morgan, Lewis and Bockius and had used that firm's library.
I suppose he thought I was resourceful.
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1 comment:
The internet, Westlaw, and Lexis have taken the fun out of being a law clerk!
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