Tom Jorde – 50th Reunion Essay

Tom Jorde

POB 2587

Aptos, CA 95001

tmjorde@gmail.com

925-570-0832

Spouse(s): Mary Anne Jorde (1984)

Child(ren): Kevin Jorde, (1987); Chris Jorde, (1988)

Grandchild(ren): One on the way!

Education: Yale, 1969; Yale Law School, 1972

Career: Clerked for Justice William Brennan, Jr. 1973–74; Litigator, 1974–78; Law Professor, Berkeley School of Law, UC Berkeley, 1978–2002; Co-founder and President, LECG (economics and finance consulting) 1988–1998; Co-founded Brennan Center for Justice at NYU; Retired 2002.

Avocations: Reading, meditation, travel, hiking, golf, skiing, biking

College: Timothy Dwight

There is a linearity to my life that unmistakably begins with Yale: By junior year, I was fairly certain I was headed to Business School. But then I had the great fortune to take Yale law professor Charles Black’s undergraduate course in constitutional law which opened my mind and heart to another path and I applied to law school. Yale Law School then made possible a Supreme Court clerkship with Justice Brennan, and that in turn made possible a teaching career at Berkeley where I specialized in antitrust and civil procedure. All this then led to the creation of LECG, a consulting firm specializing in economics and finance in the context of litigation, which I eventually helped take public on the NYSE. So, in the end, I was able to combine my original business interests with the law, and both have been deeply satisfying.

I have always been grateful that Yale took a chance on a kid from northern California who had attended a public high school that had never sent a graduate to an Ivy League college. My life was forever changed. In an effort to pay that forward, I have tried to live a life of generosity and helpfulness. And to that end, I have been honored to be a cofounder of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU which is on the front lines every day fighting to reform, revitalize—and when necessary, defend—our country’s systems of democracy and justice. (http://www.brennancenter.org).

But my reflection on time at Yale would not be genuine if I did not note the negative effect college drinking and Yale sanctioned drinking events had on my life. I came to Yale naïve and inexperienced about alcohol and intoxication. I came to embrace both with enthusiasm, I’m afraid. Alcohol was an important aspect of my singing group, the SOBs, and, of course, it was central to the Tang Cup, a speed drinking contest held annually between TD and Silliman. I was so good at this that I captained the TD team and anchored the drinking table. It all seemed such good fun at the time. But when I look back at those undergraduate years I feel a sense of shame for the time I spent with alcohol, and a sense of loss for other parts of Yale that I missed. I am responsible, I know, for my own choices, but I believe this part of the Yale experience primed my later-in-life excessive love for great wines, a passion I stepped away from on my 60th birthday, when I gave up drinking. There is another way to live and I am so happy to have found it.

As important as Yale has been, it pales in comparison to the love I find in my family and friends, and my gratitude for continued good health in body and mind. To all my classmates, I wish you happiness, good health, and a life lived in balance.