Maynard Pirsig

Maynard E. Pirsig, LLD, (/ˈpɜːrsɪɡ/; January 9, 1902 - February 7, 1997) was an American legal scholar. He was a professor, and dean, of the University of Minnesota Law School; a Minnesota Supreme Court justice; director of the Minnesota Legal Aid Society, and an advisor for the Indonesian, Puerto Rican, and El Salvadoran legal systems. He defined Legal Ethics in the 1974 Encyclopedia Britannica. His law books were widely used in schools across the country, including his casebook Judicial Administration—which Pirsig used for the United States' first law reform course, early 1930s. He was mentored by Everett Fraser, Roscoe Pound, and Felix Frankfurter.

Pirsig wrote in his book, Cases and Materials on Legal Ethics, 1949, "The lawyer's duty is of a double character. He owes to his client the duty of fidelity, but he also owes the duty of good faith and honorable dealing to judicial tribunals before whom he practices his profession. He is an officer of the court--a minister in the temple of justice." Pirsig, supported civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, abolishment of the death penalty ("an imperfect system should not be lethal"), Planned Parenthood, abortion rights, a separate juvenile court system, rehabilitation programs for prison inmates, and fair access to the law regardless of income.

Robert A. Stein, former dean of U Minnesota Law School, described Pirsig as "an unpretentious man concerned about the welfare of others".

Maynard E. Pirsig's son, Robert M. Pirsig, authored Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Lila.

Pirsig was born in 1902 in Kossuth County, Iowa, near Elmore, Minnesota, to Gustav and Amelia Pirsig, Prussian immigrants. He was raised on his parents' farm, with his four siblings, speaking only German until he began attending school. Pirsig earned a bachelor's degree in 1923 from the University of Minnesota, and an LL.B degree in 1925 from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Pirsig joined the university's Law School faculty 1929. Soon, under the guidance by Dean Everett Fraser, he attended graduate courses in law at Harvard University from 1931 to 1932, studying under Roscoe Pound and Felix Frankfurter. During 1932–1933, on a University of Minnesota Law School scholarship, as preparation for developing a course in judicial administration, Pirsig spent one year in England with his wife Harriet and son Robert, studying at the Middle Temple. Upon returning to the University of Minnesota Law School, Pirsig began teaching his new course in judicial administration in 1934. A course that strove to encompass all subjects—from justice and precedence, to trial techniques and the organization of the courts—pertinent to developing well rounded lawyers. Pirsig's research and teaching led to the publication of a book in 1946, Cases and Materials on Judicial Administration, which he taught throughout his career. Judicial Administration gave birth to a new subject in the field of law. Charles W. Wolfram described Pirsig's teaching as aiming to produce "students... equipped with a challenging attitude, a reformer's zeal for ideal solutions, and a full arsenal of possibilities for innovations (who) would continue to confront the judicial system with challenges to ever more humane conduct that alone will guarantee its continuing legitimacy". George K. Gardner said of the book: "Here are a thousand pages on the purpose and problems of our profession which will repay thoughtful study by any student, teacher, or practitioner of the law." Pirsig also taught courses on pleading, ethics and criminal law.

When Pirsig was Dean of the Law School (1948–1955), he recruited ten new faculty members. Most were, or became, pillars in the world of legal scholarship, including Charles Alan Wright, Michael I. Sovern, David Louisell, Jesse Dukeminier, and librarian Leon Liddell. Pirsig managed an expansion of the school, including the library. He developed a training program at the law school, for professionals in juvenile delinquency control which trained police and judges on how to utilize the American Juvenile Justice System - a system Pirsig had been instrumental in introducing to the state. He managed a difficult period of post-war transition and growth at the University of Minnesota Law School, however, according to Robert A. Stein, "traditions of excellence were maintained and the foundation was laid for more productive future years". Pirsig resigned his position as Dean in 1955, and returned to teaching full-time. While Dean of the University of Minnesota Law School, Pirsig publicly urged the university to expel fraternities and sororities that had racial "bias clauses" in their charters or constitutions, 1957.

He retired from the University of Minnesota Law School due to its mandatory retirement age, then 68.