FACULTY PROFILE:
JAMIE CAREY
»
uly 1 will be a sad day
at Loyola. It’s the official
retirement date for
Jamie Carey, a professor
for 32 years and the
director of the school’s
Dan K. Webb Center for
Advocacy. “Professor
Carey is one of the main
reasons I had such a
special experience at Loyola,” says
Ellen Westley (JD ’11). “When I tell
people I had a lot of fun in law school,
they’re always really surprised. But
it’s hard to dwell on exams and other
negative aspects of law school when
surrounded by people like Professor
Carey. That may be his greatest lesson,
and gift, to his students.”
Trying times
If it weren’t for luck, Carey might
never have landed in teaching—or
at Loyola. In the VietnamWar-torn
late 1960s, Carey had finished law
school but not yet taken the bar
exam when he was drafted into the
U.S. Army. During his two-year tour
of duty, Carey seriously considered a
military career.
“I toyed with the idea of
becoming an officer, thinking perhaps
conditions would be better for my
wife, who was pregnant,” he recalls.
“But the advice from others was
to give the army as little time as
possible. So I stuck it out as a draftee
and was basically a typist in the
judge advocate general’s office. I
never got rotated to Vietnam. I was
very, very lucky.”
After being sprung from the
army (he occasionally claims to have
served in the Libyan army), Carey
began working at the Cook County
Public Defender’s Office in 1971. He
eventually landed in the felony trial
division, where he became a member
of the homicide task force, trying
about 30 homicide cases. He was also
promoted to supervise the division’s
public defenders.
During that time, Carey began
to experiment with teaching.
“There’s an element of emotional
and psychological wear and tear in
public defense work, but I wouldn’t
have said at the time that I was
burned out,” he explains. “I was made
a supervisor and ended up not liking
that role. I was chafing and a little
restive. Rather than attempt to get
back into the task force or the
courtroom, I channeled
that toward teaching.”
Carey taught at both
the National Institute of Trial
Advocacy and at Wilbur Wright
College in Chicago—and then came
the Loyola opening. “Loyola needed
someone to run its trial advocacy
program,” Carey recalls. “The teaching
thing was such a blessing. It came out
of nowhere, I liked doing it, and here
was this opportunity to do it as a job.”
The joy of teaching
Teaching at Loyola taught Carey
something very important. “I’ve
discovered that I like teaching, and I’m
good at it,” he says.
His students agree. “Professor
Carey had a way of speaking to
Known for his deep
engagement with students,
Jamie Carey taught them
“that you can be yourself,
even in a profession as serious
as law,” says 3L John Norkus.
»
J
Riding off into the
Montana sunset…and
other new adventures
students with such genuine caring
and respect,” explains Josh Dankoff
(JD ’11). “When he asked ‘How are
you?’ it felt as if he really wanted to
know and would be happy to listen to
a full response.”
That openness enabled students
to learn more than evidence rules
or trial advocacy skills. “I learned
from Professor Carey that you can
be yourself, even in a profession as
serious as law,” says third-year student
John Norkus. “A lot of people outside
the legal community have this
perception that lawyers are always
serious or boring, or a variety of other
unflattering things. I don’t think any
person would think these things of
Professor Carey.”
Carey has valued student
interactions as much as the students
have. “That’s been the best part of
the job,” he says. “Students are really
extraordinary in their concern and
care for each other. The ethos of
helping each other was true when I
started, and it’s true today. Maybe it
has to do with the Jesuit identity.”
Why end a good run? “A really
telling part of the decision was that
our oldest son lives in Montana and
has two daughters out there,” explains
Carey. “My wife and I tried to visit,
but by coincidence, a year and a half
passed without us seeing them. I
thought, ‘What’s most important to
me?’There was a realization that we
could do it financially and that our
time with them was most important
to us. Once I got the bit in my mouth,
I didn’t want to wait. I said, ‘I’m out!’”
What will Carey miss? Nothing
but the people, he says. But he’s ready
for a change. “My father, father-in-law,
son, brother-in-law, godson, niece,
and cousin have been in the law,
and there are several Loyola alumni
among them,” he says. “I’m proud to
have been in it with them; now I’m
going to try something else.”
■
After a 32-year
run, Professor
Jamie Carey retires
to savor what’s
most important to
him—
family
MASTER OF ADVOCACY
24
LOYOLA LAW
SPRING 2012
25
