A Lawyer\u27s Death

Toward the beginning of Tolstoy\u27s long story The Death of Ivan Ilych, one of Ivan\u27s lawyer friends goes to the dead magistrate\u27s home to express condolences. Looking upon Ivan\u27s body as it lies in its coffin, the visitor seems to see in Ivan\u27s face a reproach and warning to the living. Discomforted, he treats the warning as not applicable to him, and is delighted to see another of Ivan\u27s lawyer friends, a playful, well-groomed, and elegant figure whose refreshing appearance suggests that he is above all these happenings and would not surrender to any depressing influences. Ivan\u27s two friends whisper an agreement to meet for a bridge game later in the evening, their whispers sounding one of the story\u27s repeating themes: how we back away from death, treating it as separate from life and unconnected to ourselves until it is upon us. I recalled the great Tolstoy story when I read the recent issue of the Harvard Law Review containing seven short articles under the title In Memoriam: Henry J. Friendly. Henry Friendly, who died in March 1986, was among the very greatest federal judges of this century, and at his death he was still actively engaged in the work of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The group of men who memorialized him—Bruce Ackerman, Wilfred Feinberg, Paul Freund, Erwin Griswold, Louis Loss, Richard Posner, and Todd Rakoff—includes some of the leading names in American law. Their essays generally did not focus on Judge Friendly\u27s contributions to specific areas of law; rather, most were more personal. That is what makes one omission from these articles particularly striking: none of the seven alluded to the fact that Judge Friendly killed himself