Corporate Counsel
The Metropolitan
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Volume 14, No. 6
© 2006 The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Inc.
June 2006
Special Feature: National Law Day
The Profession’s Response
To The Challenge Of Complacency
The Editor interviews Peter J. Kalis, Chairman and Managing Partner of Kirkpatrick
& Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP and
Chair of the American Bar Association’s
National Law Day.
Kalis: “Parallel career” is a little excessive.
I have spoken at various functions, and I
have served on one or two task forces. The
real crown jewel of my ABA experience has
been serving as Chair of National Law Day.
Editor: Mr. Kalis, would you tell our
readers something about your background and professional experience?
Editor: Speaking of which, would you tell
us about National Law Day?
Kalis: I graduated from West Virginia University in 1972. I spent a year at Yale Law
School and was fortunate to obtain a Rhodes
Scholarship. I took a leave of absence and
spent three years at Oxford doing a doctoral
degree in law and politics. My dissertation
was on British industrial relations. When I
returned to Yale I went into the second year
and spent my final year as editor-in-chief of
the Yale Law Journal.
Following graduation, I clerked for the
late J. Skelly Wright, Chief Judge of the DC
Circuit, for a year and went on to clerk for
Justice Byron White at the United States
Supreme Court. I came to Kirkpatrick &
Lockhart in 1980. My work has been in litigation, with a primary focus on insurance
coverage issues for major corporations. I
was engaged in this practice for some 15
years, prior to becoming increasingly
involved in firm management. For the past
eight years I have been Chairman and Managing Partner of the firm.
Editor: Can you share with us the things
that attracted you to the firm?
Kalis: Having grown up near Pittsburgh, I
was attracted to the city – which is where
Kirkpatrick & Lockhart originated – but the
real attraction was the extraordinary group
of individuals leading the firm at that time.
They were a high-energy group of people,
very collegial and committed to the commu-
Peter J. Kalis
nity and to the profession. They were also
having a wonderful time together building a
great law firm. The combination was irresistible. Notwithstanding the fact that we
have grown to more than a thousand lawyers
and have 12 offices across the country and
abroad, we try to perpetuate the atmosphere
and culture that were so prevalent in the firm
I joined more than 25 years ago.
Editor: You have also had a parallel
career with the American Bar Association.
Kalis: In the late 1950s the then-President of
the ABA, Charles Rhyne, concluded that
there was a need for the bar to take a more
active role in propagating the fundamental
values that we associate with the term “rule
of law.” He convinced President Eisenhower
to establish National Law Day as a focus for
such a role. Over the years, it has gathered
significant momentum, not as a celebration
internal to the profession but rather as a concept for the profession – as missionaries for
our system of justice – to convey to the
larger community. It is meant to encourage
an appreciation of our special heritage and to
avoid taking it for granted. I see complacency as one of the principal challenges that
every democracy faces. National Law Day is
among the profession’s responses to that
challenge.
Editor: What kinds of activities take
place?
Kalis: It has been a real education for me to
see National Law Day through the eyes of
the ABA staff in Chicago. Law Day has a
presence throughout our society. From the
beginning of April through the end of May
there are a variety of events, drawing upon a
broad range of organizations, to celebrate
Law Day and the values it symbolizes. The
organizations include, in addition to bar
associations and other professional groups,
schools, civic and community organizations,
Please email the author at dsaunders@klng.com with questions about this article.
Volume 14, No. 6
© 2006 The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Inc.
religious groups and public service organizations of every type. The ABA staff circulates a planning guide that describes how to
organize a school program or a mock trial
designed to introduce young people to the
profession and the values that Law Day is
meant to project. My colleagues at K&LNG
and elsewhere are heavily involved in these
activities, and I am glad to say the original
ABA vision of members of the profession
serving as missionaries for the rule of law is
alive and well.
There is a real challenge here. The rule of
law is an abstract concept for many young
people. Our schools are trying to transform
this concept into something concrete, something that young people can grasp. Lawyers,
as guardians of the rule of law and, at the
same time, flesh-and-blood figures in our
society, are uniquely placed to help in this
process.
Editor: Obviously Mike Greco, the President of the ABA, came to you with this
important undertaking because of your
commitment to the rule of law and to our
heritage of liberty under law. Our readers
would be very interested to know how
you came to have that commitment.
Kalis: As you know, Mike Greco is the son
of an Italian immigrant. Well, I am the son
of a Greek immigrant. My father was a naturalized American citizen and, like many
immigrants, he had very strong feelings
about this country and the blessings it
bestows on its citizens. That communicated
itself in a variety of ways to a young boy
with an inclination to become a lawyer. At
Yale Law School, in the Constitutional Law
class of the late Alexander Mordecai Bickel,
I was able to grasp the truly transcendent
significance of the rule of law in our system.
It differentiates that system from the arbitrary arrangements others must endure.
When I studied in Britain in the mid1970s, it was at a time of enormous stress,
and some people were taking the law into
their own hands. There was a moment or
two when I wondered whether that society
would be able to survive as we had come to
know and admire it. I went on to have the
good fortune to work for two great jurists
who believed that law was a kinetic force in
the lives of all Americans and that it had to
be pursued with conviction, devotion and
passion. These experiences had a profound
effect on my perception of the rule of law
and, if any were needed, on my commitment
to it.
The theme of this year’s National Law
Day – “Separate Branches, Balanced Powers” – strikes a particular chord in me
because of my time at the United States
Supreme Court. When I clerked there, I was
struck by the intimacy and modesty of the
institution as compared to the two other
branches. The equalizer is the rule of law,
and, of course, the Supreme Court is the
guardian of this concept.
I have known Mike Greco for many
years, and we have had many occasions to
share our convictions about the rule of law.
Editor: Please tell us why the 2006 theme
was selected. Is there a message here? Are
we losing ground in the appreciation and
comprehension that American young
people bring to their view of our government and the way it works?
Kalis: “Separate Branches, Balanced Powers” was selected by Mike Greco in consultation with the ABA staff. It is one of the
core principles of our constitutional democracy, along with the right to a jury trial and
other rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights,
the Commerce Clause, the inherent powers
of the President and other core principles.
Unlike some of the other National Law Day
themes, however, the separation of powers
has not been articulated and promoted to the
extent it deserves. This year’s National Law
Day, accordingly, is an attempt to start to
remedy this state of affairs.
Editor: Everyone appreciates the importance of drawing attention to the rule of
law and the ways in which it underlies
our freedom as a people. How do we go
about transforming this occasional recognition into a permanent feature of our
civic life?
Kalis: One view is that a celebration of the
rule of law once a year is insufficient to
underscore the importance this concept has
in our life as a nation. The other view is that
it becomes more special for the relative
infrequency of the celebration. I believe that
the rule of law, in all of its varied aspects, is
alive and well in our society. For all of its
deficiencies, our system of justice results in
outcomes that are fair, as a matter of substance and process, and thoughtful. Not all
the time, for no system is perfect, but
enough of the time for most of our people to
have a profound trust in that system. I am
among those who think that going to the
mountain top once a year to proclaim the
unparalleled functionality of our system
makes the celebration more, not less, special. I like the idea of coming together once
a year to remind ourselves how unique such
a system is and how fortunate we are to be
its beneficiaries.
Editor: We are a country of immigrants.
Never more so, it seems, than today.
Please share with us your thoughts about
June 2006
how we bring the newest arrivals to our
shores into the fold so far as the rule of
law is concerned.
Kalis: One of the signature challenges of
this century is the movement of people
across borders. The preservation of core values in the face of such movement is something that many societies face today. Our
country has a commitment that goes back
two centuries to a particular brand of constitutional democracy – a commitment that
defines us as a people – and we have a special obligation to all new entrants into this
country to introduce them to the rule of law
and to the enormous positive energy that it
releases.
This is something that my father felt a
century ago when he came here. In the formal process of immigration and naturalization there continues to be a civic education
feature. But, of course, not all new entrants
to our nation follow that formal process.
Whatever their pathway, we must introduce
immigrants to the concepts that underlie our
freedom as a nation. We must continue to
rely upon and support our public education
system as a primary means of integrating
new arrivals into the cultural and social fabric of the country. It has served us well in this
regard for the past two centuries. I do not
mean to minimize the challenges, however.
They are as daunting today as they have ever
been, perhaps more so. Because we have
been successful in bringing new entrants into
the fold in the past, we may be in a better
position to face the new wave of global
immigration than societies that are experiencing it for the first time.
Editor: What are the consequences if we
are not successful in this effort?
Kalis: We simply cannot afford to fail. The
last time we experienced a large disenfranchised segment in our society, the country
was ripped apart. It is at the heart of our mission to bring people into the mainstream. If
we fail in that mission, we emerge as a very
different people and nation.
Editor: And the consequences for the rest
of world – and particularly for places
which have not know the rule of law – if
we do it well?
Kalis: We have been perceived, to borrow a
phrase, as the shining city on the hill for people throughout the world. This is not something that we should take for granted. Rather,
it is something to be earned every day. In my
view, promoting the rule of law is one of the
best ways of ensuring the continuation of
this splendid image as well as the reality
behind the image.