双语有声阅读：我被法学院开除的日子

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The Day I Flunked¹ out of Law School

 

The dean of the University of Colorado School of Law decided² that I couldn’t return to classes next fall because my grades were too low. He said I would never make a lawyer.

 

Even today words cannot describe my upset. I’d never really failed at anything significant.

 

After all, the University of Colorado at Boulder³ was a Taj Mahal—the door to judicial⁴ clerkships and prestigious⁵ law firms.

 

But I decided to try again and went to see Clifford Mills, the dean of Westminster College of Law—a poor man’s school with no tenured professors or law review.

 

After reading my college transcript⁶, Dean Mills let me enroll⁷ at Westminster, on one condition, that I repeat all my first-year classes, this time paying attention.

 

“I’ll be looking over your shoulder,” he said.

 

One door had closed. But others opened.

 

Given a second chance, I worked much harder, becoming fascinated by the law of evidence.

 

In my second year the professor who taught the course passed away. I was asked to take over—inconceivable at a law school like Boulder.Evidence became a lifelong specialty⁸, and for many years I taught classes on the subject for judges, law students and practicing lawyers throughout the country. Meanwhile I worked days in the Denver City Attorney’s office as a clerk. It was anything but glamorous⁹. But it led to a job as an assistant city attorney after graduation. I became a county judge at age 28, one of Denver’s youngest.

 

Later I was elected as a district judge, and then appointed by the President to the federal judiciary as a U.S. district judge.And, ultimately, I did return to Boulder—to receive the University of Colorado’s George Norlin Award, and an honorary doctorate¹⁰ of law.

 

Sooner or later everyone will fall short at something important to them—whether it be a job, a dream or a relationship.

 

Flunking¹¹ out of law school, I believe, made me a better judge, it certainly taught me about the frailties¹² of the human condition, and about the need to give people second chances. But failure also taught me that life is a road with unpredictable forks and unexpected tomorrows.To take advantage of them, you can’t let yourself be destroyed by a defeat, or let others set the limits on your ability to achieve.

 

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