REMARKS BY PROFESSOR RUSTAD ACCEPTING ENDOWED CHAIR

I am very honored to be selected to succeed Tom Lambert as the second holder of the Thomas F. Lambert Jr. endowed chair at Suffolk. I am especially honored by the presence of Elizabeth Lambert, Paul Sugarman, and Bob Bonin. I am very honored by the presence of close friends, family, and colleagues. I would also like to thank Dean Bob Smith and my colleagues for nominating me to carry on Tom's work here at Suffolk.

We all know that there is only one Tom Lambert. I pledge to carry out Tom's legacy and is life's work in teaching that "tort law is the chief guardian of the institutions which are central to our civilization." I pledge to teach future generations of law students that: "No rule is settled until it is settled right" or "A fence at the top of cliff is better than an ambulance in the valley below" or "Tort law divorced from Damages is like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark." Tom was an inspiring teacher whose classroom was truly kinetic.

Tom had a way with words. I saved many of the handwritten notes that Tom sent me over the years. I recently came across Tom Lambert's little monograph, The Case for Punitive Damages: A New Audi. Tom wrote in my copy: "This is a few crumbs returned for all the loaves you cast upon the waters in making this subject your own. A child has become father to the man." Best, Tom. This little inscription reflects a rare and wonderful friendship and scholarly journey that I first began in 1984 when I enrolled in Professor Lambert's products liability seminar. To say that Tom Lambert was a gifted teacher was to say that Pedro Martinez had a way with pitching.

I would not be a law teacher without Tom's guiding hand. Tom endorsed my application to be clerk for Judge William E. Doyle of the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. He also wrote a lyrical letter of reference for my LL.M application to Harvard. Tom was instrumental in recruiting me to teach at Suffolk University Law School in the fall of 1998. I would not be at Suffolk without Tom Lambert's one-line note to President Sargent to "Grab this guy!"

Suffolk University Law School has been a very stimulating environment for me thanks in no small part to having my office next to Tom's in our old home at the Donohue Building. It was no accident that in my first years of teaching that our offices were right to each other and that we occupied the same suite after moving to Sargent Hall. However, I could never match the height of the piles of papers and books in Tom's office although I tried. Tom had a gentle way of motivating young schoolteachers as he often described himself. In the Fall of 1988, he sent me a short hand-written note: "About that punitive damages manuscript in your drawer, better let it ripen or it will rot!" He accompanied his note with a description of a grant application. And that was the beginning of my life as a torts scholar. Tom provided advice on how to develop my Harvard LL.M thesis into a grants proposal which won the competition. I received a Roscoe Pound Foundation fellowship to conduct research on tort law remedies. At the time I began my research, Tom Lambert wrote a letter of endorsement of my project to the trial bar quoting Louis Brandeis, "The law arises out of the facts." Thanks to Tom's endorsement, I had an excellent response rate. Many respondents mentioned their sincere admiration for "Tom on Torts."

Tom was convinced that the attempts by tort retrenchers to dismantle our civil litigation system could best be countered by careful empirical study. Tom was right about the importance of empirical research. I found no evidence that the civil litigation system was out of control, as the corporate-insurance alliance charged. Several American Bar Association Presidents and state supreme courts have cited my research in defense of tort law. Tom thought that another Brandeis aphorisms also applied to systematic research in encountering tort horror stories: "Sunlight is the best of disinfectants." I have used my research in several amicus briefs in U.S. Supreme Court cases responding to the tort reformers who questions the constitutionality of punitive damages. Tort law is under attack and needs defenders in Tom's tradition. The principal goal of the tort reformers is to essentially nationalize tort law, which has been an exclusive province of the states.

On a personal note, Tom was not only a teacher, mentor and colleague, but also a good friend. I was his guest at a black tie dinner held in his honor at the Georgetown Club. Tom was the keynote speaker and the room was filled with dignitaries including at least three U.S. Senators. Tom had undergone major surgery only a few months before and I was concerned whether he had the strength to give his usual "three rousing cheers" and a bow" to tort law. I still remember Tom slowly walking to the podium and I hoped against hopes that he could complete his speech. Tom gained strength and gave a thirty-minute speech that was Tom at his best. At the end of his speech, he received thunderous applause and standing ovation. As the successor to the Lambert chair, I will strive to have the strength and energy to carry on his tradition. I will use the chair to ensure that Tom's work is appreciated and continues to motive a new generation of scholars.

Tom always said he stood on the shoulders of giants and that is what I hope to do. Holmes wrote in the Path of the Law that we should teach in the "grand manner." At Suffolk we not only teach in the grand manner, we teach from a grand manor. And a technical masterwork at that. Tom's life in the law was filled with hope and optimism. He saw the law as an instrument to right wrongs and to create a better world. One of his favorite quotes from Holmes was that "The truth is that the law is always approaching and ever reaching consistency. It is forever adopting new principles from life at one end and it always retains old ones from history at the other, which have not yet been absorbed or sloughed off. It will become entirely consistent only when it ceases to grow." Tom's work too is in the process of becoming, much like the law of torts. Thank you very much for being with me today.