Future Kentucky Lawyers: “Professionalism” Means Watching the ‘Cats No Matter What

One definition of horror, for a Kentucky fan, is not being able to follow Big Blue in the NCAA Tournament. For the UK fans who also happen to be students at Northern Kentucky’s law school, restricting their ability to do so by scheduling a mandatory “professionalism” lecture for the same time as Kentucky’s opener meant some irony was in store. Above the Law passes along a tipster’s report:⇥This “professionalism” lecture, a mandatory event for 1L’s, consisted of a very conservative attorney/judge/sheriff from Cincinnati talking about the need to return prayer and spanking to schools, and a very liberal ACLU attorney stressing the importance of pro bono representation of child molesters. Event titled “Lawyers: Agents of change, or Preservers of the status quo?” And yes, the entire class of 1L’s were playing on their iPhones during the entire event following March Madness.Okay, yes, that seems like a minor waste of time, but it was only the first round. I could understand needing to pay attention to a Sweet Sixteen game, but being glued to a 1 vs. 16 tussle with East Tennessee State is stretching it. I’m not surprised that this spurred Associate Dean Lawrence Rosenthal to write a letter saying “I could not think of any behavior less professional” than what happened at the presentation.

I am surprised that he didn’t realize he was dealing with Kentucky fans.

Kentucky Sports Radio flicked on the blowtorch, first for the meeting...⇥Apparently, the folks at Northern Kentucky’s Law School (Chase) decided to schedule a professionalism conference during UK’s NCAA Tournament game. Now think about that for a minute. You are in the state of KENTUCKY…where basketball is king. How in the world could you believe that holding ANY event on the Thursday night of the best four days of the year (the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament) was a good idea? Professionalism or not, that is simply poor planning and shows the shortsightedness of those in my dork-filled profession.⇥⇥⇥⇥⇥⇥⇥⇥So what do the great NKU students do? Oh yes, they show their true UK spirit by watching the game on their computers and iPhones during the lecture. Good for you…we must have priorities in society and you have yours correct.⇥⇥⇥⇥⇥⇥⇥

...and then for the letter:

⇥Oh Lawrence…how misguided are thee? You must not be from around these parts. You ask if the students would act this way in front of a judge or client, but if you were familiar with the state in which you teach, you would know that no judge, attorney or client would EVER schedule an appearance during a UK game. The first rule of being a strong advocate is to know your audience and in this state, basketball comes first. In order to teach “professionalism”, isnt it first important to have some notion of your surroundings and the world in which your future students will inhabit.So what we’re left with is a law school in Kentucky that didn’t think things through when scheduling that conference; Kentucky fans who demonstrated either an absolute lack of or total dedication to professionalism, depending on your opinions of lawyers and UK fans; a dean who clearly doesn’t get the passion of those fans; and Big Blue bloggers who have no qualms about torching anyone denying a chance to catch John Wall and the rest in action. (These folks have a ways to go to catch Crimson Tide football fans, though.)

If this isn’t the perfect example of how twisted and deep some Americans’ devotion to sports is, it’s certainly close.

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