Address to Jessup Competitors
every court. The professional opportunities you have opened up for yourselves by participating in this competition are likely to offer you great things. You have chosen a field of specialisation which offers a chance to shape the world and the conflicts which burden it. Former Jessup com- petitors argue before the International Court of Justice. They are in prominent roles all over the world as diplomats, ministers, teachers, judges and practising lawyers. In Singapore, as Su- preme Court Justices; in Georgia, as Minister of Justice; even as General Counsel of Microsoft, who bought his first computer to participate in the Jessup. You will meet each other in unex- pected professional places throughout your ca- reers. You will face real problems, like the moot problems but different, all your lives, serving the cause of peace and security; and it is not fanciful to hope that the friendships initiated here will make resolving those problems easier.
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As you rise in your professions, do not forget that lawyers are given great privileges and are often quite prosperous as a result. Think of those who cannot afford a lawyer. Some of them will have a good claim, notably against the state, but through lack of a legally-trained advocate, their voices will go unheard and they will not prevail. Consider acting for them without fee. There are organisations which serve those who need guid- ance. There are countries which need guidance.
In America and in the United Kingdom, we call such work pro bono. In other countries, it may be called pro deo. In some countries, it is little known. I am proud to be the head of my firm’s pro bono practice. Hundreds of my colleagues devote some time in a professional year to doing some pro bono work. I encourage each of you to devote a small part of your professional time to pro bono work. It helps to train, it helps to find new colleagues, it motivates the non-law- yers with whom we work, and once in a while it can make the world a better place. Last, but not to be forgotten, is the truth that pro bono work
is now a factor of competition with other law- yers. Recall, in pursuing this activity, the words of Aristides to Themistocles when seeking to settle a conflict between their Greek city states in face of a common external challenge: “Let us enter upon a safe and honourable dispute, com- peting with each other for the preservation of Greece.”1
I hope that you in your future practices will “in safe and honourable dispute” compete with each other for pre-eminence in pro bono ef- fort. This contest, the Jessup International Law Moot, is indeed a safe and honourable dispute. You are coming to the other side of the moun- tain of academic and practical effort which a le- gal education entails. Congratulations on getting so far so quickly. I salute you as the future lead- ers of your profession.
.
Ian Forrester, QC, is a Partner in the White & Case Brussels office and head of the Firm’s Global Pro Bono Practice. Mr. Forrester practices European law, litigating trade, competition and regulatory cases before the European Courts, and has particular experience in due process and human rights cases.
For more information about White & Case’s so- cial responsibility initiative, please visit the 2011 Social Responsibility Review at srreview2011.
whitecase.com.
1 For when Eurybiades was deliberating to desert the isle
of Salamis, and the galleys of the barbarians putting out by night to sea surrounded and beset the narrow passage and islands, and nobody was aware how they were en- vironed, Aristides, with great hazard, sailed from Ægina through the enemy’s fleet; and coming by night to Them- istocles’ tent, and calling him out by himself; “If we have any discretion,” said he, “Themistocles, laying aside at this time our vain and childish contention, let us enter upon a safe and honourable dispute, vying with each other for the preservation of Greece.” (Plutarch’s Lives,
Volume 1 of 2) . ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 4 » May 2012
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