By Pat Graves
The recent induction of Martin Leigh Harrison into the Alabama Lawyers’ Hall of Fame jogged my memory. Somewhere in my law school memorabilia were classroom photographs of him. Forty four years ago during my senior year in law school, I sensed an opportunity to capture and preserve a moment of the history and tradition of the law school. Dean Harrison gave me permission to photograph him during a class.
I sat high on the back row of his large classroom in Farrah Hall which now houses the University’s Department of Geography. I used a telephoto lens and several rolls of fast film to eliminate a flash. I hoped to capture his classic movements and gestures. To those of you fortunate enough to have been schooled at the foot of the master, I hope these photographs will bring a smile.
On entering the Spartan classroom the Dean’s routine was to first remove his pocket watch which he laid lovingly on the desk. He always stood during his lectures, occasionally using a lectern. His hand gestures were classic. To emphasize a point during a lecture, he snapped his fingers on the upswing of his hand saying “clearly” (the “r” was soft) or “contract formed.” On occasion a faint whimsical smile crept over his face, generated by a student’s question or answer. A pencil was his pointer. His students lovingly called him “The Tiger” because of his passion for the law, or more frequently, “Dean.”
At the induction ceremony, Reggie Hamner gave an outstanding presentation of the man who served on the faculty of the University of Alabama Law School for 39 years, teaching several generations of lawyers. Born in Opelika in 1907, Leigh Harrison was the son of a highly respected superintendent of education. At the University he earned an AB and a Phi Beta Kappa Key in 1927 at 20 years of age and in 1929, an LL.B. After practicing law in Birmingham for six years as a distinguished appellate lawyer, he earned an LL.M at Harvard in 1935. Leigh Harrison taught law at Southern Methodist University two years before returning to Tuscaloosa.
As Dean from 1950 to 1966, Leigh Harrison strengthened admission requirements, supervised two expansions of Farrah Hall, tripled the library holdings, and hired the first lawyer librarian. Under his leadership the Alabama Law Review was established, promoting research and writing. His recognition that state support was not enough to elevate the quality of the law school and to attract gifted students led to the creation of the Law School Foundation, the Law School Alumni Association, and the Farrah Law Society.
In the early 70s, Leigh Harrison served as Staff Director of the Alabama Constitutional Revision Commission which generated a new judicial article to the constitution under which the highly regarded Unified Judicial System was created.
These photographs capture the essence of a professor, dean, and gentleman.
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Patrick Howard Graves, Jr., is a retired partner in the Huntsville office of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, LLP. He graduated from West Point in 1964, and served two tours in Vietnam as an infantry platoon leader and company commander and aide-de-camp. He graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1972. In retirement he is writing family history and about adventures at West Point and in the Army.
