Disc 1 Track 05. Continuation of Ian Mattoch to Ricky Schwartz to Bruss Keppeler.

Title

Disc 1 Track 05. Continuation of Ian Mattoch to Ricky Schwartz to Bruss Keppeler.

Subject

Disc 1

Source

Series 1: Memorabilia
Oral History/Testimony - A Law School for Hawaii

Date

10/20/1969

Identifier

CJWSROH:D1T5

Interviewer

Hawaii State Judiciary Committee

Interviewee

Ian Mattoch, Ricky Schwartz, and Bruss Keppeler

Transcription

Ian Mattoch:

0:01-0:09 When I first entered law school, I received my first case and brief on the day the first snow fell in Chicago.

0:1-0:23 I continued to brief cases and snow continued to fall, and by late winter, there were huge drifts on the streets and piled briefs on my desk, and I began to yearn for some practical experience.

0:24-0:31 Uh, this yearn for practical experience continued throughout three years of law school.

0:31-0:34 It was satisfied to some extent through a community aid program.

0:36-0:51 Ironically, when I arrived back in Honolulu to begin practice some big practitioners would say, "I really wished that, you know, law students would have some practical experience, uh, in [inaudible] and in other areas."

0:51-0:59 Rick has introduced my topic as being a benefit which the law stu-- law school may confer on the community.

1:00-1:14 I'd like to very quickly summarize its most specific proposal, uh, and characterize it also as a benefit to the law student and that it will give him some practical experience.

1:15-1:31 As you know, existing in the university is legislative reference bureau, um, bureau of extend services to the legislature, in terms of drafting, um, respective legislation, research and so forth.

1:32-1:43 Uh, attorneys are currently-- currently staff of bureau and I have been led to understand that the experience there is infinitely valuable to them.

1:44-1:57 Uh, Mr. Matsuda, another member of this committee, who will subsequently speak and I had occasion to talk with Herman [inaudible] , the past director of the legislative reference bureau.

1:58-2:08 And our discussion centered on whether or not law students could participate in the activities of the LRB legislative reference bureau.

2:10-2:16 Uh, aiding and research, and extending their activity into the legislature as researchers.

2:16-2:27 I feel, my personal conviction is that it would be better that this-- this activity would be through a university organization rather than a direct sort of lend-lease program with the legislature.

2:28-2:36 Uh, law students who graduates from the law school would have opportunities to work as interns directly with the legislature.

2:36-2:48 But if the legislative reference bureau would, uh, offer a program of this sort of a type which we are going to propose, I hope.

2:49-2:58 Uh, the law school could offer a course that would focus on public issues, public issues and also drafting and researching of legislation.

2:59-3:06 Uh, to that and the law student would have an opportunity through the bureau to work directly with legislatures.

3:07-3:24 Uh, to get in some good practical experience, in the considerations that are involved in drafting legislative bills, as well as the highly technical and very, uh, needed legal skills that are involved in drafting legislation.

3:26-3:44 The benefits conferred by such a program would be many, other than this practical experience, uh, from a standpoint of a law student who is making a decision as to which law school you could attend.

3:45-3:58 Assuming that he has a wide range of law schools, a person might well be tempted against, uh-- be tempted to attend the newly established University of Hawaii Law School.

3:59-4:16 Because it's a local law school and because it affords contacts rather than attending a law school in the mainland which is-- has a well-entrenched faculty, and Ivy at least a hundred years old, growing to the old bricks, of law school building.

4:16-4:35 Um, the student would be impor-- afforded it-- an invaluable experience of early in his study, when he can still direct his choice of courses, of working in practical legal situations and stimulating situations that you're involved in in the legislature.

4:38-5:00 Meeting the legislatures, meeting the people who make the decisions of a society, I think that the possibilities of-- that implied by this project are well in keeping with current trend of public orientation in legal education, rather than the traditional forms of edu-- education.

5:01-5:19 Um, I would certainly appreciate, uh, being able to draw in the experience here in forming of the conclusions of my study project, and I hope to be in close contact with the university so that we can formulate some definite proposals with respect to these programs. Thank you.

Ricky Schwartz(?):

5:22-5:23 Thank you Ian.

5:24-5:35 Obviously, one of the, uh, things that a person immediately thinks about, about a law school in Hawaii is that Hawaii has a-- a very unique geographical location in the United States.

5:36-5:42 We are the State that, uh, most closely acts as a bridge between Asia and the American mainland.

5:43-5:54 Uh, and there's been a good deal of talking, a good deal of thinking on the part of all-- all sorts of people here and elsewhere about what Hawaii can do, uh, to-- to serve functionally as a bridge between these two.

5:55-6:06 Uh, the East-West Center is an obvious major step in this direction and certainly the possibilities for cooperation and work between the East-West Center and the law school are numerous.

6:07-6:19 Two of our committee members, uh, are looking into this, uh, in some detail, uh, in the possible ways, uh, that this kind of relationship could be established.

6:21-6:26 Uh, we've taken the topic and broken it down, uh, into two subtopics.

6:27-6:30 That means there are two fellas will speak to you only half as long each.

6:31-6:39 Uh, first is Bruss Keppeler, who is a-- also a, uh, a local person and that he was born and raised here.

6:41-6:47: Bruss went to the University of Washington Law School, uh, in Seattle and graduated in 1966.

6:49-6:57 Uh, he spent two years as a deputy attorney general of the State of Hawaii, and is now assist to highway safety coordinator for the State Department of Transportation.

6:58-7:05 Uh, Bruss will speak to you on a possible program, uh, in business law, with a-- with Asian and the Pacific Rim countries.

Bruss Keppeler:

7:13-7:14 Thank you Rick.

7:16-7:45 I volunteered for this chore and a happy one, looking into the possibility of dev-- the development of a graduate studies program in Pacific Rim countries or nations' commercial law because the fact that my alma mater, the University of Washington, has a program that is very very similar to this sort that we're thinking about.

7:49-7:59 I could speak from experience and of-- of very close friend and fellow alumnus of the University of Washington.

8:00-8:17 Andy Ichiki is a practicing attorney here in Honolulu, and spent a great deal of times studying what the University of Washington calls Asian law in their Asian law program, at the University of Washington.

8:18-8:32 Andy then subsequently practiced for two or three years in Tokyo, and is now back here in his interest lies in this kind of a program for our law school.

8:35-8:48 The initial thrust of the University of Hawaii Law School or School of Law would be to train attorneys for private practice here in the United States, and especially in the State of Hawaii.

8:49-8:59 But as it has been pointed out by number of other gentlemen here, a school, a state law school really can't stop there.

9:00-9:20 In order to build a reputation, which will draw topnotch students and faculty, a law school must have a broader program than one which merely grinds out nice little law graduates in a proper form.


Duration

9 minutes 20 seconds
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Citation

“Disc 1 Track 05. Continuation of Ian Mattoch to Ricky Schwartz to Bruss Keppeler.,” The Archival Collections at the University of Hawaiʻi School of Law Library, accessed March 29, 2024, http://archives.law.hawaii.edu/items/show/19350.