Dec. 14, 2006

Cardozo Portrait Donated in Honor of Cooley Professor

From left: Professor Otto Stockmeyer and Associate Dean William Weiner

In honor of Cooley Professor Otto Stockmeyer, New York attorney and Cooley alumnus Anthony H. Gair has donated a signed portrait of Benjamin Cardozo to the law school.
Benjamin Cardozo was a highly successful appellate lawyer, a pre-eminent judge, and a noted scholar of jurisprudence. He served on New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, for 18 years and on the U.S. Supreme Court for six years. Upon his death in 1938, the four top American law reviews published an unprecedented joint issue commemorating his life and work.

Cooley officials were pleased with the gift. William Weiner, Associate Dean of International, Graduate & Extended Programs, said "What better place could there be than a law school to display a lithograph of Justice Cardozo? Combined with Cardozo's autograph, the drawing is a handsome addition to Cooley's expanding art collection."

During Cardozo’s years on the New York Court of Appeals, he wrote more than 550 opinions. They were notable for the creativity with which they moved the common law forward and their graceful rhetorical style. Half a century after his death, law school casebooks contained more opinions by Cardozo than any other jurist.

Anthony Gair’s father, Harry A. Gair, first acquired the Cardozo portrait and it hung in his office until his death in 1975 “out of his great respect for a man he considered one of the finest legal minds in our history,” Anthony Gair noted.

Harry Gair entered law practice in New York City in 1919, during Cardozo’s early years on the New York Court of Appeals. The elder Gair came to become known as the dean of New York’s personal injury bar. A national magazine profiled him in a 1954 article that was titled “The Lawyer Who Hasn’t Lost A Case In Ten Years.”

At the time of his father’s death, Anthony’s life was in transition. As he recalled in the commencement speech he gave at Cooley in 2000: “Twenty-five years ago, I was living in New York City with my wife, Teri, and our young son, Daniel. At the time, I was driving a taxi. With some not-so-gentle prodding from my wife, I took the LSAT.”

Anthony headed west to Lansing and entered Cooley Law School in 1977. Upon his graduation cum laude in the Potter Class in 1980, he entered his late father’s law firm, Gair, Gair, Conason, Steigman & Mackauf. He served for many years on Cooley’s Board of Directors.

Anthony Gair gained national recognition in 2004 in winning a $3 million settlement from the city of New York for the death of Amadou Diallo, who had been shot 41 times by police officers. The amount was the largest ever paid by the city in a wrongful-death action involving a single individual with no dependents.

Anthony’s son Daniel graduated from Cooley also, as a member of the Stone Class in 1996. He is now an associate in his grandfather’s law firm, which over the years has grown to 20 lawyers.

When Harry Gair died, the Cardozo portrait passed to his wife Harriet. She herself was an attorney, and for many years was the managing partner of the Gair law firm. Anthony acquired the portrait upon his mother’s death in July 2006. In donating it to Cooley Law School, he said: “Since Judge Cardozo was one of the most brilliant judges in history, I feel it would be appropriate to have it displayed at Cooley rather than in my office where only a limited number of people see it.”

Currently an emeritus professor, Otto Stockmeyer began his teaching career at Cooley in 1977. He has also taught as a visiting professor at Mercer University Law School and California Western School of Law. When advised of Gair’s gift in his honor, he said: “I am flattered to have a highly successful lawyer, who was in my Contracts class almost 30 years ago, remember me in this fashion. Knowing of my admiration for Cardozo’s opinions in the field of contract law, Anthony Gair has made a most fitting donation.”

Following some minor restoration work, in which the matte and glass were replaced, the Cardozo portrait is on display in the reception area of the Contracts Department on the eighth floor of the Cooley Center

Founded in 1972, Cooley Law School is now the largest law school in the country. Cooley has the largest enrollment in African-American students of any law school and the second highest number of minorities overall in the United States. Cooley has three campuses across Michigan; its main campus in downtown Lansing, its downtown Grand Rapids/Western Michigan University campus in west Michigan, and its Rochester/Oakland University campus in southeast Michigan. In addition to the J.D. program, students at Cooley can also pursue an LL.M. in Tax or in Intellectual Property.