The James Bond of Columbia Law School: Philip Bobbitt
We have a soft spot for Columbia Law School, especially after our excellent visit there on Wednesday (“our” = Lat + Kash). Thanks to the CLS Federalist Society, the sponsor of our talk, for the warm welcome.
We also have a soft spot for celebrity professors. Meet Columbia law prof Philip Bobbitt — no relation to John and Lorena Bobbitt, presumably — who was recently profiled in the New York Observer:
Through some combination of gossip, online stalking, hounding their teaching assistants and perusing the Facebook group “Phillip [sic] Bobbitt is Our Hero,” students piece together the following:Professor Bobbitt, who is 60, arrived at Columbia only 18 months ago, after three decades at the University of Texas. He is an eminent scholar of the Constitution and used to teach modern history at Oxford. He’s a former member of the Carter, Bush I and Clinton administrations and an adviser to foreign heads of state.
Henry Kissinger and Tony Blair blurbed his latest book on terrorism, which both current presidential candidates have reportedly read. He’s the nephew of Lyndon B. Johnson. He can blow smoke rings, and sponsors a national poetry prize in honor of his late mother. Also: He rotates seasonally among his homes, and can’t shake his habit of a nightly cigar and scotch-and-soda.
Read more, including words of wisdom from the worldly-wise professor, after the jump.
Here’s why the Observer, in the front-page teaser about the article, describes Professor Bobbitt as “the James Bond of Columbia Law”:
Most students see him as a dedicated teacher who happens to lead an impossibly cultured and glamorous life.“His mannerisms just kind of ooze a James Bondian kind of quality,” says Vishal Agraharkar, a former LM student and a teaching assistant for this year’s class. “Someone who acts like that in class and outside class we assumed must have just an incredible personal life. James Bond has a hell of a personal life, so he must as well.”
“You turn around and you realize that he teaches class on Monday and Tuesday and flies around the world solving the world’s problems Wednesday through Sunday,” said Mr. Greiwe, who has been a teaching assistant for three of Mr. Bobbitt’s classes.
To lead “an impossibly cultured and glamorous life,” it helps to have Professor Bobbitt’s matinee-idol looks. It also helps to come from money — which we’re guessing the good professor does, in light of his famous relatives and what the Observer describes as a “grand” apartment on Park Avenue.
(Columbia Law School profs are used to having fancy pads. E.g., Hans Smit, who’s selling his $30 million mansion; Sarah Cleveland, who purchased a $2.4 million townhouse last year.)
The impressively credentialed Professor Bobbitt — a graduate of Princeton (A.B.), Yale (J.D.), and Oxford (Ph.D.), and a law clerk to the legendary Judge Henry Friendly (hey, no SCOTUS clerkship?) — offers the following pearls of wisdom to his students:
Have a life outside law school. Share notes. In the middle of a take-home exam, take a walk or a nap.On the final day of Legal Methods this year, he shared a pearl from “my celebrated uncle,” meaning President Johnson. Every afternoon at 4:30, go into a dark room, change into your pajamas and lie down. After half an hour or so, start working again.
And on that note, we’re going to take a nap.
Professor Bobbitt [New York Observer]
(56) Comments
Comments
snypah
He is the shit....
Lat, I missed you!
He's such a tool. He drives this classic convertible and hops over the door. Also, ever single book he's ever written has some gay J. Crew type pose.
But he is a very good constitutional scholar.
This post is brilliant.
a "U.D."? What's that?
My officemate gets totally freaked out when I turn off the lights in the middle of the afternoon and start undressing.
Love to see Lat's posts. Please come back and save ATL!
UD = urinary disease
Oh come on. This is too easy:
BobbiTTT
Bobbitt is the best teacher I've ever had.
Bobbitt's house had paintings of naked people on the bathroom wall. Maybe it was supposed to be cultured, but I found it just gross.
NYU has profs that are just as good.
#13 -- No, you don't. NYU may have professors that are better than all other CLS professors, but better than Bobbitt? No.
13 - Maybe before Noah Feldman left.
"Matinee idol looks" is right, if that black and white photo is accurate.
NYU is in a better location than Columbia. The Village is way better than Spanish Harlem.
Richard Gere will play him in the movie.
My friend at Columbia confirms that almost all his classmates were rejected by NYU. And almost all of my classmates at NYU were accepted by Columbia. I don't know why we have to keep covering the same ground.
15--Ouch, thanks for re-opening that painful wound...
Actually, for all his star power, I found Feldman to be an underwhelming teacher. Great scholar, but not terribly impressive in the classroom.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/101508_lawyers/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed4
If you are a law firm gunner, both schools are fine.
But if you are interested in government work or academia, you should note that Columbia does better at clerkship placement than NYU.
He looks like Paul Newman. Maybe he is going to die soon too.
I thought his wife chopped his penis off and threw it out the window.
Thanks Dave for the CLS shout out! Thanks to you and Kash for coming uptown. We had a great time.
19- NYU is an awesome school, and on par with Columbia. But you are totally, completely wrong.
But even if you were right, get over your complex and just be proud you go to a great school in the best city in the world.
26. Best City in the World? Since when did Ibiza town open a law school?
He seems like a right chap, but I can't trust a guy who puts soda in his scotch. Might as well put hot sauce in your Vouvray.
Bobbitt's at Columbia now? Damn; seems like UT's been losing quality professors left and right.
Bobbitt is badass. I am privileged to have had him for legal methods.
He was awesome at UT in the seminars he did for Plan II. Definitely could have been a spy given his jet set lifestyle and government ties.
So does the guy sleep with his students? Because I feel that it would be very Bond-esque of him to have a new "Bobbitt girl" every year.
PEANUTS and . . . you guessed it! . . . CHEESE!
Thanks Dean Sager!!!
19 - The only people who would go to NYU over Columbia are rich kid little fucks who feel the need to be down in the village so they can party and go to trendy fucking clubs and blow all of daddy's money while they profess to be dedicated to public interest and saving the entire fucking world.... i hope the crisis wiped their trust funds out and suddenly their having to think about actually working for once in their life
6 made me laugh. Yay, six.
35--Or, y'know, some of us chose NYU over Columbia because we actually cared about enjoying our three years of law school, and maybe maintaining the ability to smile...
Is TTT a CIA codeword for Columbia?
Why does every thread about CLS or NYU have to degenerate into a fight about which school is better?
Yes, we have Bobbitt, and he is amazing. I'm sure NYU has good professors too.
He said he didn't do a SCOTUS clerkship because none of the judges were good enough.
Not joking.
#40: Really? What did he say?
40/41 -- Actually, in class he mentioned that he had a conversation with Judge Friendly (or maybe it was Charles Black) where he lamented that he hadn't clerked with the only judge worth clerking for. His interlocutor agreed. One of them said, "He died in 1971." The other said "Yep". It turned out that Bobbitt was talking about Hugo Black and the other was talking about John Harlan.
Even though Bobbitt certainly would have disagreed with Black on lots of things because of his narrow constitutional approach -- textualism -- he also said he would have enjoyed clerking for him.
I have to agree with 28. Adulterating scotch is not a sign of righteousness.
Does anyone else feel like punching 42 in the face?
42, have you ever wondered how much further you could crawl up Bobbitt's ass?
He was a terrible professor. Good academic I'm sure... so people claim.
He doesn't look like a manatee! Poor manatees, slashed to pieces by rotor blades.
42, thank you. Cool.
Thanks Lat and Kash for coming to CLS last week. You put on a great presentation.
Thanks for this Above the Law, and readers too.
Fine material for "Nuts in NY":
http://www.nutsinny.com/all-nuts/professor-007-the-james-bond-of-columbia-law
I had Bobbitt for LM at CLS, and I thought he was mainly insufferable, with a side of pomposity.
But I guess I'm just a cynic.
I heart #47.
I weep with laughter.
Oh, the huge manatee!
Many of these facts are completely wrong. Yes, he smokes cigars, but this whole Scotch and soda business is hogwash. The man is a gin guy and it's about all he drinks. Also, he had a man servant in Texas. It was excellent.
Finally, James Bond fits, but I've always thought of him more as the Great Gatsby.
Though he always freaked me out a bit as a professor, Bobbit is actually splitting time between UT and Columbia. From the UT website:
Formerly the A.W. Walker Centennial Chair at the Law School, Professor Bobbitt now holds a chair at the Columbia Law School, though he remains a Senior Fellow in the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas.
32 - Yes, he was known at Texas for numerous affairs with students.
I had Bobbitt for Con Law I at Texas. The man is an insufferable pompous tool. His lectures are mostly about his own life, his family, and all the famous people he's met, with an occasional diversion into actually discussing the law. He is awful in the classroom. Texas will be a much better school without his large ego taking up valuable space.
As for his "matinee idol looks," to me he looks a bit like Paul Drake, Perry Mason's investigator on the old black and white TV show.
Does he have a secretary named Della Street too?