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xi prologue Achieving the American Dream as Counsel for the Situation Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. —Goethe At some point each of us enters the stream of history. We have no control over the time or place, or the sandbars, boulders, or floating obstructions we may confront along the way. I entered the stream on July 7, 1920. I began to chart a course through most of a transitional century, a time unique in the annals of American and world history. This was the century in which a youthful pluralistic nation began to fulfill the promise of its declaratory charters , recognizing the rights of all its citizens to reach their full potential and resolve their differences within a framework of law. Fortunately for me, it was the time when persons of extraordinary vision and great charisma actually changed the course of history’s stream—Eleanor Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower , Earl Warren, Lyndon Johnson, Charles Houston, William H. Hastie, and Thurgood Marshall, to name but a few. As the doors of opportunity slowly began to open, I chose a career in the law. I have sought to uphold the highest traditions of my profession—as “counsel for the situation” in the private practice of law, through public and community service, as an innovative advocate helping to shape the law, by bringing my lawyer’s skills to the corporate boardroom, and, perhaps most challenging of all, by attempting to balance (not always successfully) family with work. Among the high priests in a secular society, lawyers often are the means by which we resolve conflict peacefully. We are the grease that lubricates the engine of a dynamic, growing economy. The leading members of the bar are “experts in relevance” who can tackle complex problems with analytical skill and commonsense judgment. In this age of increased specialization, volatile global economic cycles, and intensely competitive legal practices, I hope we never lose the vision of the special role lawyers perform in a regulated private economy and diverse free society. That role often calls on us to undertake voluntary legal services and serve the public in advisory and full-time capacities. 00-0488-1 fm.indd 11 9/29/10 1:32 PM xii / Prologue It has been my privilege and luck to know and advise in varying ways presidents of the United States of both political parties, to serve in President Ford’s cabinet as secretary of transportation, to argue nineteen cases in the Supreme Court of the United States on issues as diverse as antitrust, energy, banking, and constitutional law, to represent leading corporations in major mergers and “bet-the-company” litigation, and to serve as a director of some of America’s great corporations, among them IBM, Chase Manhattan Bank, Pan Am, CIGNA, and PepsiCo. I was also privileged to play a part in the peaceful legal revolution in which the Supreme Court finally faced up to the U.S. Constitution’s unfulfilled promise of equality of opportunity, resurrecting its somnolent post–Civil War amendments and eradicating American-style apartheid. Like my mother and father and their parents and grandparents before me, I firmly believed that it is incumbent on each generation not only to challenge the establishment but, more important, to become a creative force within it. The path that I have taken, therefore, is somewhat different—although hardly unique—from that of most civil rights leaders and politicians of color with whom I have worked, whom I greatly admire, and to whom all Americans are much indebted. Through their struggles, opportunities have opened up for Americans of color and for many others as well. As the barriers came down, I found myself well prepared to seize the unprecedented opportunities presented at that extraordinary time in history. My greatest ambition was to be a practicing lawyer in all the many dimensions of that profession, in the courtroom, in the boardroom, and in the corridors of government. I wanted to be an integral part of an interconnected global economy, reaping the just fruits of my labor. Nurtured by a strong and loving family, including my wife and children, I had had ingrained in me the values of insatiable curiosity, hard work, and the best possible education obtainable through talent and effort. My parents were proud to be Americans and proud of the particular, significant heritage they each brought to the American experience. They contributed greatly to their community, instilled in me a strong sense...

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