An example to build on

At 6 o’clock at night, says Jean C. Powers ’79, there would be a line of lawyers outside the office Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel stalwart Lawrence H. Wagner ’49, “waiting to get in and ask him how to do something. He was wonderful about it, so generous with his time.”

That was Larry Wagner – the conscience of the firm, and a practitioner always willing to share his hard-won advice with the next generation of lawyers.

So when Powers, a partner at Jaeckle Fleischmann, an emeritus member of the Dean’s Advisory Council and a longtime generous supporter of the Law School, started filling out a form to create an endowed scholarship fund at the school, she realized, “I’d really rather have it named in honor of Larry, who was a mentor to me and somebody who influenced so many lawyers in our firm. He was just an extraordinary man.”

Now her gift – and those of others who wish to pay tribute to Wagner’s memory – will endow the Lawrence H. Wagner ’49 Award Fund, whose proceeds will help fund the education of Law School students who excel in the classroom and have financial need.

Wagner, known locally as the “dean of civil trial lawyers,” worked first for the New York State attorney general’s office in Albany before joining Jaeckle Fleischmann. As a young lawyer Powers worked with him for a year on the Love Canal insurance litigation “before anybody knew what it was turning into.”

“I used to say that Larry was my father in the law,” Powers says. “He was just a prince of a person. He was a prime example of that generation of lawyers – courtly, courteous, never cutthroat, would be kind to an opponent. He always did a remarkable job for his client but never got nasty about it.”

Of her gift Powers says, “The Law School is responsible for my ability to have this legal career, so any chance I have to help it out, if I can do it, I do it. And if it can help honor Larry Wagner, so much the better. He was somebody you would want to know and certainly somebody you would want to practice law with. And if he can be an inspiration for somebody who gets this award, so much the better. We need more Larrys.”