Holding up a USA Today, after apologizing for bringing a publication of the sort into a respectable audience – and gleaning laughter from the amused crowd – Dean Ken Starr turned his attention to not the flashy headlines, but small black and white print imbedded deep within.

There is bloodshed in Liberia because of elections, murders in Pakistan and chaos in Colombia, said Starr. “We are blessed in this country with the rule of law.”

Dean Starr addressed the first year students of Campbell University’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law on the “Nobility of the Law,” as part of the 2007-08 Professionalism Lecture Series. To date, this year’s Professionalism Series has hosted guest speakers Joseph Cheshire V, Esq., Professor Robert Cochran, William K. Suter and Charles L. Becton.

Starr is the Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean and Professor of Law at Pepperdine University School of Law, where he teaches Current Constitutional issues and Civil Procedure. He holds several degrees, including a J.D. from Duke Law School. He is Of Counsel to the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and formerly served as a counselor to the United States Attorney General and a U.S. Circuit Judge. Starr is a member of several professional organizations including the American Law Institute and the Supreme Court Historical Society. An author of numerous law review articles, he is also the author of the best-selling book, First Among Equals: The Supreme Court in American Life, published in 2002.

“Pound described the term professionalism as a group pursuing a learned art as a common calling in the spirit of public service – no less a public service because it may incidentally be a means of livelihood,” Starr said.

“It is a noble profession you are entering…to serve others,” he said.

When referencing the late Roscoe Pound, Starr asked the audience who had ever heard of him. When about four hands rose, he smiled. “I’m impressed.”

“This is an interactive audience,” said Starr. “They tell me I’m here for two hours…so, it better be.”

And, for the next two hours, Starr frequented upon quotes from Abraham Lincoln, Sandra Day O’Connor and others, and stressed the importance of the students’ generation to reclaim what law should be. “You see, my generation betrayed this profession. It is your job to reclaim it,” he said. “Maybe you’ll do it in a very small way, but it will be a very special way.”

Starr stressed integrity, diligence, excellence and civility, creating a pneumonic device “DICE” – as well as a postscript, peacemaking and servant hood.

He called upon the reclaiming of values. “And I don’t mean Wal-Mart value, or Hannah Montana,” he quipped, laughter following from the crowd. “T.S. Eliot called it ‘the permanent things.’”

“I want to encourage you to always have a pro bono case or two going on,” he said.

He also seriously suggested that each law student in the room “adopt a country,” recognizing Campbell Law’s own Lynn Buzzard for his efforts in Korea.

Starr then recalled the story found in John 13, of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and how the purpose of that selfless act was to be an example, of how to be a servant leader. “You can become a servant leader in your community.”

Nearing the end of his allotted time, Starr touched on immigration and the death penalty, standing firm on the concept of his pneumonic device, and recalling the images he shared at the beginning in USA Today. “Beat your swords into plowshares,” he said.

During the question and answer time at the end, Starr was asked to explain how his involvement in Whitewater came about. After a quick debriefing of how the events lined up, Starr paused. “And that’s how I got hornswaggled,” Starr said. “That’s how we say it in Texas.”

In closing, Starr challenged the first year students to start thinking now about how they can help others, model what it means to be a servant leader, and ultimately reclaim the “noble profession” of law.

Additional coverage of Dean Ken Starr’s Jan. 30 engagement at Campbell can be accessed via the following sources:

Dunn Daily Record: Feb. 1, 2008

Fayetteville Observer: Jan. 31, 2008

News & Observer: Jan. 31, 2008