Law School Construction Quote Wall

--Inspiring Penn Law Students With Memorable Words--

Penn Law School students can find inspiring and thought-provoking words inside the School and now outside the building, too, from quotations printed on a protective wall separating the School's popular courtyard and the Golkin Hall construction site.

While relaxing, enjoying lunch or chatting, people in the courtyard are protected by an eight-foot aluminum wall that features law-related quotations from legal decisions, world leaders, activists, authors and even fictional characters. The quotes are serious, funny, inspirational and cynical.




"The courts of this country should not be the places where resolution of disputes begins. They should be the places where the disputes end after alternative methods of resolving disputes have been considered and tried."
--Sandra Day O'Connor

"When the President does it, that means it is not illegal."
--Richard Nixon

"Mister Hart, here is a dime. Take it, call your mother, and tell her there is serious doubt about you ever becoming a lawyer."
--John Jay Osborn Jr. from the film "The Paper Chase"

"There's a silliness to it, and there's seriousness to it," Gary Clinton, Penn Law's dean of students, said.

Before construction began in the spring, Clinton asked students, faculty and staff to submit quotations to make the construction site more fun and visually interesting. Clinton and a student committee selected 30 quotes for the wall.

First year Law School student Kesia Brown said the quotes show that the law is more than just legal opinions.

"It's a little bit of our perceptions of the law, pop culture, historical concepts. And it all gels together to form our ideas of what it is to be in a society of laws," she said.

The wall will remain on the site throughout the construction, which is scheduled to be completed in January of 2012.




For more about information the Law School construction project, go to: http://www.law.upenn.edu/about/newbuilding/

Text by Jeanne Leong

Category:

Education

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• Law
• School
• Construction
• Quote
• Wall