WHO WAS PROFESSOR KINGSFIELD? Professor Kingsfield is the terrifying Harvard Law professor of contract law who is celebrated in THE PAPER CHASE (a book by John Jay Osborne, and later a movie and a television show). Because I knew how kindly Lon Fuller was, I was amused some years ago to see an article by John Jay Osborne about how much he admired Lon Fuller, and it turns out that Osborne’s contracts professor was Fuller. I had always thought the Osborne had drawn upon the legends of a number of Harvard Law professors. A comment here says that Osborne once said that the character was based upon his impression of Harvard Law school professors of the previous generation and especially the legendary “Bull” Warren. This thread at the Volokh Conspiracy blog suggests the names of other professors: Clark Byse, “Black Jack” Dawson, Richard Powell of Columbia Law School, and Professor Joseph H. Koffler of New York Law School. There are a lot of other names with stories attached to them, which in itself gives an idea of what law school teaching is like.
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“Professor Charles Kingsfield” was pretty clearly now-deceased Professor Stefan Riesenfeld of Boalt Hall (U.C. Berkeley’s law school), although he was also at times a visiting professor at Harvard as well as other law schools. They had similar behaviors and mannerisms (for example, Professor Kingsfield speaks with a British accent, Professor Riesenfeld had a strong German accent–he fled from the Nazis to the U.S. in the 1930s). Riesenfeld was known for being a terror in class, and my first day in Property he had a woman in tears because she wasn’t prepared. Some Kingsfeldian sayings were in fact things Riesenfeld was known for saying. Some I remember from class were “You have mush for brains,” “I can explain it to you, but I can’t understand it for you,” and “You, my friend, are a contingent remainder” (meaning it was unlikely that the student would survive his class).
He was especially upset when the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about him, saying that they believed he was the real Kingsfield. The article recited that he was known as one of the toughest professors in the country, and that his students were terrified of him. He came striding into the classroom holding the Chronicle in his hand and then slammed it down on the desk. He stared at all of us for a while, and then he addressed us, in his German accent: “It zays here zat you zuffer. You think you zuffer?? Vat about me, zurrounded by an ocean of people who know nothing!”
He was a true classic. I was scared to death of the guy, as were generations of law students, but he’s the one law professor I really remember all these years later, and what he taught me is still there in my brain, all in his German accent.
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Dear lawyers and others,
My father was Robert Braucher, who taught contracts for years at Harvard Law School. When I read The Paper Chase at the age of 17 in 1971, Professor Kingsfield bore an uncanny likeness to my father and in more ways than one. My father, however, was different from Kingsfield. For instance, he wore loud ties, not bow ties as in the movie, and had a very good sense of humor and a laugh like a fog horn. Kingsfield appeared to be an amalgam, based on several professors, as the author has stated. Still, I believe my father was one of the professors whom the author used in creating Kingsfield. It’s possible that this is not so; in which case, the author did a masterful job because he captured some essential characteristics of a Harvard Law School contracts professor. There is no doubt that my father could be intimidating and that he had a mind like a steel trap.
Sincerely,
Karen Braucher Tobin
Writer
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