He was trying to instill confidence in his students. For first-year students undergoing Socratic-method indoctrination, confidence was and still is a scarce but important commodity. I cannot remember what class it was that Professor and Dean Bruce Burton was teaching (Property??), but it was the professor that made a lasting impression on me, not the content of the class. I wielded a protective shield of arrogance. (I had delayed law school for a year of intense classroom and practical training in business marketing and computer design with IBM, at that time recognized unofficially as the equivalent of an MBA, and was not some doey-eyed rube fresh out of college, or so I thought – HA!) Inside, I was just as insecure as every other never-studied-law-before student. But I have never been afraid to put myself “out there” in front of people, particularly in a learning situation, no matter who the audience was. So, when Burton waived a $10 bill and all but dared someone to respond to his question or challenge, my hand shot up in the air. The reward for me wasn’t just the $10. it was the relationship created between this professor and me (the Dean??? – he was the Dean??? – I didn’t realize that at the time). Bruce Burton gave me a confidence boost and would go on to play a pivotal role in my life and career.
Toward the end of Fall semester of second year in 1976, IBM and my fiancée both decided Florida was to be in my future – immediately. I was to report to my new office in Miami in January. Back then, second year was the completion of the mandatory law school courses – Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, et al – all of which had grades based only on one final exam in Spring. I would miss those final exams after having the Fall semester under my belt. The University of Miami was fortunately one of only a handful of night law programs in the country, so I was fortunate. However, the transfer process would not be timely and UM was giving me hints that coming from William Mitchell with my serviceable but not stellar grades would not make transferring advisable. They did, however, present transient status as an option. I never knew such a thing existed, but I would need permission from my “home” school.
Dean Burton was unhesitatingly supportive and accommodating. He gave me the conditions, all of which were very reasonable. He even agreed that the last semester residency requirement for graduation could be satisfied by a summer term. The result was my being able to register at UM for the Fall of 1977. I had to get authorization before registration each semester for my courses from Mitchell. Dean Burton coordinated with me on this requirement personally for every semester I was at UM. Thanks to Dean Burton’s assistance and guidance, I finished my law studies in August 1979 – only 3 months after I would have finished had I stayed at Mitchell. I was included in the January 1980 graduating class. Half of my law school career may have been under Soia Mentschikoff, wife of Karl Llewellyn, co-author of the Uniform Commercial Code, and Dean of the UM Law School, but it was Dean Bruce Burton that guided me through one of the toughest periods of my life.
Though I wasn’t there when Burton left Mitchell, I felt a deep sadness nonetheless. If he impacted only a handful of students only half as much as he impacted me, then his leaving was a tremendous loss to the school. I have always been proud to be a graduate of Mitchell. That pride always accompanies a warm inner glow and smile because Dean Bruce Burton was and always will be what William Mitchell College of Law is to me.
To be clear, Bruce Burton succeeded: he instilled the confidence to conquer legal studies and succeed in life, at least for this one particular student.
Cornell D. Hills ‘80 (WMCL)