Attorney, former judge teach university class for free

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - They might be teaching a college class for free, but old friends Dave Park and Nick Murdock still think they’re coming out ahead.

“It didn’t occur to me that it was a big deal,” Park, a retired Seventh Judicial District judge, said, laughing. “We thought we were getting a pretty good deal.”

“I mean, we probably would pay something to have that experience,” said Murdock, a Casper-based attorney who’s practiced since the late 1970s.

It might sound like false modesty. But with Park and Murdock, it rings true, reported the Casper Star-Tribune (https://bit.ly/2hOtNvQ). Murdock gushed about his admiration for his students, many of whom face challenges like working other jobs or raising families but still make it to class, prepared and engaged.

Park talked about how much he enjoys working with his old friend again. They teach their class, which is about politics and the judicial system, from 7 to 10 p.m. on Monday nights. Before that, the two former law partners have dinner and talk.

“We’d been friends for probably 30 or more years, and we did practice together before he went to the district court,” Murdock said. “Partners and good friends.”

That friendship had frayed when Park became a judge. Judges and attorneys socializing is awkward, Murdock said, so a distance bubbled between them.

Then, around 2000, Murdock’s wife, Maggi Murdock, then the dean of UW-Casper, told Murdock that the course needed instructors. They jumped at the idea.

“That’s exactly the way to see each other and catch up and kind of have a common endeavor that doesn’t get us cross-ways with how judges and lawyers are supposed to socialize,” Murdock said.

But they were both worried about conflicts of interest: Park was a sitting judge and worried about taking money from the state. Murdock’s wife was a high-ranking official at the University of Wyoming who’d asked them about taking the job.

So they decided to do it for free, “rather than fiddle with any of that,” Park said. It wasn’t about the money anyway, they insist.

It was about socializing with each other, rebuilding a relationship between old lawyer friends who’d been split by the judge’s bench. It was about teaching students, whom Murdock described as admirable and outstanding. Park, who as a judge had recent law school graduates to work with as clerks, missed having younger minds to untangle legal issues with.

Now adjunct professors, they taught the class for several years, bringing in guest speakers that ranged from state lawmakers to Wyoming Supreme Court justices. They shied away from lecturing and instead embraced a seminar-type teaching style, working to bring students into the conversation.

“We don’t like to lecture; we like to get involved with students,” Park explained. “’What do you think about issues like Bush v. Gore, or the ruling on gay marriage and things like that.”

Then the university started using a video system, where the students gathered in a classroom in front of a video camera, and Murdock and Park taught from elsewhere.

Park quickly chafed at the limitations. The video was so grainy that it was difficult to tell how students were reacting to the material. You couldn’t see facial expressions or even differentiate gender, Park said. A large part of their motivation for teaching the class was interacting with students. Their ability to do that was now limited.

“That wasn’t as rewarding,” he lamented.

On top of that, Murdock, who runs a civil litigation firm, was taking a number of cases to trial while also teaching another class at the university’s law school.

So after more than five years of teaching, “we sort of fell out of it then,” he said.

But about a year ago, Park got in touch with Murdock. What did he think about taking up that class again? The old video software was gone, replaced with a Skype-like program that would show every student’s face on a large television screen, like a deck of cards spread out.

“It’s like ’Hollywood Squares,’” Park added, laughing about the dated reference.

Still, they felt awkward talking to a TV. They went to Laramie over the summer for lessons on how to teach. They may have been teaching the class for free, but they were treating it like it was their livelihood.

They were ready. But changing university policies kept them in limbo, not knowing whether they’d teach, for the summer. Finally, on the day they were supposed to begin teaching, they got the green light.

So now they go to dinner every Monday night. They eat and talk and plan their lessons. They go to Murdock’s downtown office, sit next to each other and look into the faces of students that they’ve come to admire.

But Murdock’s admiration extends beyond the faces on the screen.

“Honestly, I had a great amount of excitement about teaching this class (again),” Murdock said. “I enjoy it for the students, but I also enjoy it because Judge Park is one of the most best-read people I know.”

Because they’re lawyers and professors, Murdock and Park place an emphasis on books. The textbook they previously used for the class (“an excellent textbook,” Murdock declares) wasn’t available. So the two of them bought around 30 copies to hand out to their students.

“When we saw that it cost $200 or $300 to buy a textbook, I think that made us more concerned for students in general,” Murdock said. “The cost of education is pretty reasonable in Wyoming, but people don’t understand that students in Wyoming still struggle.”

They try to keep in touch with their former pupils. One student went to law school and worked for Park as a clerk when he was a judge. At the end of this year, after some of their students have graduated, Park and Murdock plan on getting lunch with them and catching up.

“They’re just a very, very impressive group of students,” Murdock said. “It truly is a privilege to have been able to associate with them and discuss the state of affairs and the history of our judicial system.”

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Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, https://www.trib.com