Seavey Retires from Law School Post Following 27-Year Teaching Career

Warren A. Seavey '02, Bussey Professor of Law, will retire next June after 27 years as a professor on the Law School Faculty, it was announced yesterday.

The announcement was met with regret by many of his associates, who agreed he has been a distinguished law teacher and scholar. "I am sorry the time has come for Professor Seavey to retire. He was an eminently qualified colleague," said Arthur E. Sutherland, professor of Law. Professor Mark DeWolfe Howe '28 praised Seavey. "He is a special kind of teacher; I have no reservations in my admiration."

Louis L. Jaffe, Brynne Professor Administrative Law, said Seavey has contributed a great deal with his analytical approach to law. Seavey is an outstanding exponent of the Socratic case system of teaching.

Seavey plans to continue his research into various phases of the law after he retires. His main outside interest is in case law, for which he is engaged in a project of restatement. He is doing this for the American Law Institute, of which he is a member. Seavey is also editor of the American Casebook Series.

His teaching technique "provokes the students to exact analysis," added Jaffe. He gives the prospective lawyer the "responsibility to think for himself and justify his beliefs," Howe added. He is always ready to help individuals, students and faculty members on problems of law or any of his many and varied interests, his colleagues agreed.

Sutherland expressed his admiration for Seavey's successful plan of faculty conferences with famous speakers whom he persuaded to talk on affairs of general interest. He also praised Seavey's farsighted production that the U.S. needed to rearm faster in the months before Pearl Harbor.