Law Schools

Chauvin Trial Ends... Can White Folks Try Not To Make It About Themselves For Five Minutes?

There's a right way and a wrong way to write a law school statement addressing a verdict like this.

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(Photo by Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office via Getty Images)

The jury didn’t need much time to find Derek Chauvin guilty on all three counts in the murder of George Floyd. It’s a result that means a number of things. That a jury is capable of convicting a police officer of murder when the prosecution isn’t bending over backward to tank the case, that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was correct in opting against a more difficult first-degree murder charge, and that for one brief moment, your non-lawyer friends are going to stop asking you questions about the Minnesota criminal code even though you keep telling them that you’ve done Trusts and Estates in New Mexico for 20 years.

What it doesn’t mean is that racism is over and what it definitely doesn’t mean is… whatever the official Las Vegas Raiders account thought it was doing here:

Team owner Mark Davis took credit for this either because he completely misunderstands what’s going on or he just doesn’t want to have to search Indeed.com for a new social media intern. In either event, George Floyd is still dead. No post hoc verdict erases that. The phrase is also particularly despicable for those of us from New York who remember the more goonish NYPD boosters selling shirts with that phrase to mock Eric Garner’s death. Mark Davis says he didn’t know about that, which is probably true but also something worth Googling before making a public statement.

Whether Davis meant it earnestly or not, the official Raiders account tried to offer corporate sponsorship to a murder verdict. He’s sloganeering the outcome of a trial that left a man dead like it’s a Nike warmup jacket. Now, to be clear, for a league that’s proven itself to be an absolute trash heap when it comes to racial justice, it’s nice to know there’s an owner even passively interested in this case. But that’s the thing: know your role in this. The role of the Las Vegas Raiders is to put out a short statement that says something like, “we are relieved to see the criminal justice system render this verdict… we recognize all those who did not get even this meager level of justice… we’re committed as an organization to doing our part in promoting racial justice… Signed Mark Davis.” Not print shirts that say “Breathe Time” except with the Raiders logo replacing the “r.”

As a lifelong white person myself, I can only speak to what I’ve learned second-hand, but I think I’ve had some good teachers on this point. One critical thing to remember in times like these is don’t make this moment an avenue to promote your own interests.

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Which brings us to law schools…

Law school administrations have fumbled in the past to acknowledge the real impact of these cases on their students. Police violence and the legal repercussions — or lack thereof — exist at the intersection of a student’s identity and their profession. Michigan Law disappointed students with a June statement about Floyd’s murder that framed real world racism as a topic the school really wishes it didn’t have to talk about. Still, if imperfect it was better than some schools that actively ignored the situation. It’s a topic that schools cannot and should not ignore given its concrete impact on students both as people and future attorneys, but also one where a school must respect its lane.

Mercifully, law schools aren’t as bad at this as the Raiders. That said, we’re judging on a curve.

On the one hand, I hate to call out a statement that comes so close to getting it right, but on the other hand, it’s more of a service to other administrations to dissect a close case than one that wildly misses the mark.

Dean Martin Brinkley of the University of North Carolina is forgiven for being proud that an alumnus of the school, Jerry Blackwell, took a leading role in the case and delivered a devastating closing argument to seal the conviction. The law school community should know the role their community played in this historic result. And the dean recognizes the names of those who deserved a result like this and will never get one. These are all good things that many statements fail to do.

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And yet…. So, here’s the closing paragraph:

I want you to be the lawyers who see the bias, inequity and injustices in our profession and change it. As we process this verdict, I ask that you dissect it and learn as much as you can so that when you look back at this case, you see that justice is possible.

Perhaps, after the criminal justice system delivers the “bare f**king minimum” for the first time in ages, this isn’t the time to recenter the whole discussion around romantic notions about lawyers making a difference. It’s not a knock on lawyers to remember that there were good lawyers involved in all those cases where Black people were killed and the justice system shrugged. It’s all well and good to be morally grounded lawyers but let’s not oversell how much that can achieve.

In that regard, it’s not much different than Davis trying to attach the Raiders brand to this outcome because this ends up casting this emotionally taxing event as “see[ing] that justice is possible” when a Tar Heel lawyer is involved! See how that transforms the well-meaning sentiment into a statement about UNC and legal academia writ large rather than the verdict or racial justice? Again, this is a closer case than anything the Raiders were doing, but these are the rhetorical choices that really matter in a statement like this.

And, as writers, lawyers are hard-wired to try and tie everything back into their overarching point. I’m writing about this case through the lens of a law school, so I get it. For a good law school dean, staying on message means bringing it all back around to the school. However, there are some instances when it really, really doesn’t have to be about the standard pep talk. It can be difficult to disconnect from the core message, but everyone needs to do it from time to time.

Also, this sentence:

I have always said that lawyers are the glue that binds our communities and it’s true. Carolina Law is the best glue factory.

Glue factories take beautiful creatures and grind them up. Put aside everything about whether or not this is appropriate for a statement on racial justice, this is not the analogy you want for a law school!

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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