Maynard Pirsig

Teaching career

Pirsig began teaching Judicial Administration in 1934. His pathbreaking casebook, Cases and Materials on Judicial Administration, 1946, gave birth to a new subject in the field of law. According to Charles W. Wolfram, "...students thus equipped with a challenging attitude, a reformer's zeal for ideal solutions, and a full arsenal of possibilities for innovations would continue to confront the judicial system with challenges to ever more humane conduct that alone will guarantee it's continuing legitimacy."

Pirsig wrote one of the first course books on professional ethics - for many years, one of the most widely used course books on this subject in U.S law schools. An excerpt from the course book Cases and Materials on Legal Ethics, Pirsig, 1949, "The lawyer's duty is of a double character. He owes to his client the duty of fidelity, but he also owes the duty of good faith and honorable dealing to judicial tribunals before whom he practices his profession. He is an officer of the court, --a minister in the temple of justice."

University of Minnesota Law School 1933-1970

In 1934, at the University of Minnesota Law School, Pirsig originated the Judicial Administration course which he taught throughout his career. "A course that strove to encompass all subjects - from justice and precedence, to trial techniques and the organization of the courts - pertinent to developing well rounded lawyers". He also taught courses on pleading, ethics and criminal law. Pirsig introduced the first course on personnel training in correctional institutions at the university.

He was Dean, from 1948 to 1955, recruiting several faculty members who later became nationally prominent figures in law, including Charles Alan Wright, Michael I. Sovern, David Louisell, and Jesse Dukeminier. And he developed (with John Ellingston) a training program for professionals in delinquency control. He resigned the position as Dean in 1955 and returned to teaching full time.

He retired at the of age 68 - the university's mandatory retirement age.

•Pirsig received the University of Minnesota Outstanding Achievement Award in 1985.

•The law school houses a lecture hall named in honor of professor Pirsig, and includes an oil painting of him.

•The law school named their moot court The Maynard Pirsig Moot Court: click here

•Pirsig's Will contained a gift to the university, to encourage returning the Judicial Administration course to their curriculum - which they did.

Mitchell Hamline School of Law 1970-1993

Mitchell Hamline School of Law (at the time, William Mitchell College of Law), immediately hired Pirsig, then aged 68, after his mandatory retirement from the U of M Law School earlier that year. Pirsig requested that he not be tenured, so they could easily release him from his position if required. He remained a sharp and vibrant professor until age 91. At William Mitchell he taught courses in Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Professional Responsibility, and Comparative Judicial Administration.

Pirsig helped to develop and teach the Comparative Judicial Administration course for William Mitchell College of Law's "Summer in London" program, with Professor Robert E. Oliphant and Professor Eric S. Janus of William Mitchell Pirsig, taught the course in London and Saint Paul, from 1988 - 1991. In London the course was taught together with professor Michael Zander.

Maynard Pirsig and Randall Tietjen co authored, Court Procedure and the Separation of Powers in Minnesota, 15 WM. MITCHELL L. REv. 141. 1989.

Maynard received an honorary doctorate from William Mitchell in 1981.

He made a donation for the construction of the Warren E. Burger Law Library, which houses the Maynard Pirsig Study Hall. There stands a vitrine of Maynard's legal and personal memorabilia, including some of his U of M lectures recorded onto vinyl record albums circa 1946.

Minnesota Supreme Court

In 1942, at the age of 40, Pirsig served briefly as an interim justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court. Appointed by Governor Harold Stassen. He served for only a few months, but wrote more than a dozen opinions, several of which later became important legal precedents.

A summary of opinions written by Maynard E. Pirsig can be seen at this link: click here.

Selected Achievements

•Executive director of the Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid Society. 1926 - 1931

•Secretary of the Minnesota Judicial Council, which studied the organization and procedures of the courts. 1937 - 1952.

•Chairman of the Minnesota State Bar Association committee to study the American Law Institute's Youth Conservation Act 1943

•Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Minnesota Division of Employment and Security, 1945 - 1956, responsible for the development and administration of Minnesota's employment security program.

•Member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law. His 30 year tenure as a member of the conference included service in many capacities, such as chairman of committees for uniform acts in arbitration, expunging criminal records, juvenile court, and rules of criminal procedure. 1947 - 1977.

•Member of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 1950 - 1957.

•Chairman, Juvenile Court Committee. 1953 - 1958

•Member, U.S. Department of Labor's Industry Committee for Puerto Rico. Beginning in 1955, later chairman for four years.

•Reporter for the special legislative advisory committee created to prepare a revision of the Minnesota Criminal Code. 1957.

•Spends three months, with James F. Hogg, in Indonesia reviewing the Indonesian judicial system and advising the Indonesian government on improvements. 1968.

•Consultant to the Minnesota Supreme Court's Committee on Rules of Criminal Procedure. 1971 - 1990.

•Publishes Legal Ethics, in ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. 1974

•Member, Minnesota Supreme Court's Commission on Juvenile Courts. 1976

•Lectured on judicial administration to the Supreme Court of El Salvador. 1991

Publications

Maynard E. Pirsig was a prolific writer. Many of his publications were about how to improve the judicial system. A list of his publications can be seen at this link: click here

Awards and honors

Events of Interest

In 1957, while Dean of it's law school, Maynard publicly urged the University of Minnesota to expel fraternities and sororities that have racial "bias clauses" in their charters or constitutions.

In 1963, Pirsig helped draft a bill to revise the Minnesota State Criminal Code. Although some officials believed that it was too lenient and hampered law enforcement, it was passed two years later.

Education

Pirsig earned a bachelor's degree in 1923 University of Minnesota, and a LL.B degree in 1925 from the University of Minnesota Law School. He attended graduate courses in law at Harvard University from 1931-1932, studying under Roscoe Pound and Felix Frankfurter. During 1932-1933, as further preparation for developing a course in judicial administration, he spent one year in England with his wife and son Robert, studying the English legal system.

Personal life

Pirsig was born in 1902 in Kossuth County, Iowa, to Gustav and Amelia Pirsig. He was raised on his parents' farm, speaking only German until he began attending school. Following a courtship of several years, he married Harriet Sjobeck in 1925. They had three children, Wanda (1943), Jean (1934), and Robert M. Pirsig (1928) author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.