Maynard Pirsig


Maynard E. Pirsig, LLD, was a distinguished American legal scholar, and a revered professor who challenged his students to improve the legal system - teaching for sixty four years. He was director of the Minnesota Legal Aid Society, dean of the University of Minnesota Law School, a Minnesota Supreme Court justice, and an advisor for the Indonesian, Puerto Rican, and El Salvadoran legal systems. He defined legal ethics in the 1974 Encyclopedia Britannica. His law books were widely used in schools across the country, and his book Judicial Administration was the first of its kind in the US. He was mentored by , Roscoe Pound, and Felix Frankfurter.
Pirsig wrote in his book, Cases and Materials on Legal Ethics, 1949, "The lawyer's duty is of a double character. He owes to his client the duty of fidelity, but he also owes the duty of good faith and honorable dealing to judicial tribunals before whom he practices his profession. He is an officer of the court--a minister in the temple of justice."
Pirsig was born on a farm near Elmore, Minnesota, speaking only German during his childhood. He went on to study law at the University of Minnesota Law School and Harvard, married Harriet Sjobeck, spent one year clerking for a barrister in London, and soon became a leading reformer in American law. He championed civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, abolishment of the death penalty, Planned Parenthood, a separate juvenile court system, rehabilitation programs for prison inmates, and fair access to the law regardless of income.
"Pirsig was an unpretentious man concerned about the welfare of others", Robert A. Stein.
Maynard and Harriet's son, Robert M. Pirsig, wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and.

Teaching career

The University of Minnesota Law School awarded Pirsig a scholarship to study at Harvard Law School in 1932. There, Dean Roscoe Pound, and later to be U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, sent Pirsig to Middle Temple Inn in London for a year to study. During this time Pirsig gathered material to write Judicial Administration, 1946, which gave birth to a new subject in the field of law. "...students thus equipped with a challenging attitude, a reformer's zeal for ideal solutions, and a full arsenal of possibilities for innovations would continue to confront the judicial system with challenges to ever more humane conduct that alone will guarantee it's continuing legitimacy," Charles W. Wolfram,. "Here are a thousand pages on the purpose and problems of our profession which will repay thoughtful study by any student, teacher, or practitioner of the law."
In the mid 1980s, drawing from his early experience in London, Pirsig helped to develop and teach Comparative Judicial Administration for William Mitchell College of Law's "Summer in London" program, with Professor , Professor , and Professor Michael Zander, at Regent's University, London.

University of Minnesota Law School 1929-1970

Pirsig joined the university's Law School faculty 1929. And soon, under the guidance by Dean Everett Fraser, Pirsig traveled to Harvard 1930, and Middle Temple in London, 1931 to research a book which would be published in 1946, Cases and Materials on Judicial Administration, which he taught throughout his career. A course that strove to encompass all subjects - from justice and precedence, to trial techniques and the organization of the courts - pertinent to developing well rounded lawyers. He also taught courses on pleading, ethics and criminal law.
When he was Dean of the Law School, 1948 - 1955, Pirsig recruited ten new faculty members. Most were, or became, pillars in the world of legal scholarship, including Charles Alan Wright, Michael I. Sovern, David Louisell, Jesse Dukeminier, and librarian . Pirsig managed an expansion of the school, including the library. He developed a training program at the law school, for professionals in delinquency control which trained police and judges on how to utilize the American Juvenile Justice System - a system Maynard had been instrumental in introducing to the state. He managed a difficult period of post-war transition and growth at UMLS, "But, traditions of excellence were maintained and the foundation was laid for more productive future years." Pirsig resigned his position as Dean in 1955, and returned to teaching full-time.
Professor Pirsig retired from the University of Minnesota Law School due to its mandatory retirement age, then 68.
• Recipient of the University of Minnesota Outstanding Achievement Award, 1985.
• Mondale Hall houses the Maynard E. Pirsig Lecture Hall, which includes an oil painting of Maynard.
• Maynard Pirsig Moot Court:
• Pirsig's Will contained a gift to UMLS to teach his Judicial Administration course again, which they did.

Mitchell Hamline School of Law 1970-1993

After his mandatory retirement from UMLS, Mitchell Hamline School of Law immediately hired Pirsig to their faculty. Then 68, Pirsig requested that he not be tenured, so he could be easily released from his position if required—he taught until age 91. Here, he taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Professional Responsibility, and Comparative Judicial Administration.
Pirsig helped to develop and teach Comparative Judicial Administration for William Mitchell College of Law's "Summer in London" program, with Professor and Professor of William Mitchell. Maynard taught the course in London and Saint Paul, from 1988 - 1991. The course was taught in London, at Regent's University, together with, Michael Zander.
Maynard Pirsig and co-authored, Court Procedure and the Separation of Powers in Minnesota, 15 WM. MITCHELL L. REv. 141. 1989.
Mitchell Hamline bestowed an honorary L.L.D. doctorate degree upon Pirsig, 1981.
Pirsig made a donation for the construction of the Warren E. Burger Law Library, housing the Maynard E. Pirsig Study Hall, where sits a vitrine displaying Maynard's legal and personal memorabilia—including his 1946 U of M lectures recorded onto SoundScriber vinyl discs.

Minnesota Supreme Court

At the age of 40, Pirsig served as an interim justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court. He was appointed by Governor Harold Stassen. Pirsig served for only a few months, but wrote more than a dozen opinions, several of which later became important legal precedents.
A summary of opinions written by Maynard E. Pirsig can be seen at this link: .

Selected achievements

Publications

Maynard E. Pirsig was a prolific writer. Many of his publications were about how to improve the judicial system. A list of his publications can be seen at this link:

Awards and honors

While Dean of UMLS, Pirsig publicly urged the university to expel fraternities and sororities that had racial "bias clauses" in their charters or constitutions, 1957.
Pirsig helped draft a bill to revise the Minnesota State Criminal Code. Although some officials believed that it was too lenient and hampered law enforcement, it was passed in 1965.

Education

Pirsig earned a bachelor's degree in 1923 from the University of Minnesota, and an LL.B degree in 1925 from the University of Minnesota Law School. He attended graduate courses in law at Harvard University from 1931–1932, studying under Roscoe Pound and Felix Frankfurter. During 1932–1933, on a UMLS scholarship implemented by Pound and Frankfurter, as preparation for developing a course in judicial administration, Pirsig spent one year in England with his wife Harriet and son Robert, studying at Middle Temple Hall.

Personal life

Pirsig was born in 1902 in Kossuth County, Iowa, to Gustav and Amelia Pirsig. He was raised on his parents' farm, speaking only German until he began attending school. Following a courtship of several years, he married Harriet Sjobeck in 1925. They raised three children, Robert, Jean and Wanda.