Abstract

Abstract of David I. Durham and Paul M. Pruitt, Jr., editors, Wade Keyes' Introductory Lecture to the Montgomery Law School: Legal Education in Mid-Nineteenth Century Alabama (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama School of Law, 2001). Iv, 45 pages, illustrations. Occasional Publications of the Bounds Law Library, Number Two. This book consists of essays by the editors, followed by an edited version of a lecture delivered by Wade Keyes (1821-1879) in March 1860 to the students of his Montgomery, Alabama, law school. Keyes was already a scholar of some note, a recognized authority on future interests and a former Chancery Court judge. His school lasted only a year before the onset of the Civil War forced him to close it, but Keyes showed the quality of his mind in his introductory lecture, printed at the request of his students and here presented in typographical facsimile. In it he proposes study and work habits appropriate to students and seasoned professionals alike quoting extensively from Coke. He also discusses economic and ethical aspects of the profession, with many references to literary works both classical and modern, and to contemporary events. David Durham's "Introduction to Wade Keyes and the Montgomery Law School" outlines Keyes' biography, tracing his legal and educational careers, his service with the Confederate Department of Justice, and his subsequent work as a code commissioner. Paul Pruitt's "Law and the Life of the Mind: Wade Keyes as Legal Educator" puts the lecture into pedagogical and ethical context.