It’s hard to argue with someone who has both the law and God on his side. If that is true of anyone, it has to be the late Patrick F. McCartan, who passed away in November.
Before he became a well known trial lawyer, McCartan served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Whittaker. He later became a managing partner of Jones Day from 1993 to 2002. McCartan was also president of the Bar Association of Greater Cleveland and chair of the board of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association.
A proud graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Notre Dame Law School, McCartan chaired the school’s board of trustees from 2000 to 2007. He never forgot what was instilled in him at Notre Dame, and his calling played out through law, fairness and community involvement.
“Pat had a deep sense of moral center and purpose,” says Rev. John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. “He was chairman of the university’s board of trustees when I became president in 2005. I was very green. Pat gave me the support I needed to succeed, and his example encouraged me to have a sense of mission and to do things the right way.”
Jenkins says McCartan would not study papers on a case prior to his arguments before the Supreme Court.
“He would simply sit in a chair and think about the core arguments of the case,” says Jenkins. “That was Pat. He taught me that when faced with a major challenge, stop the frantic activity and simply think about what is important.”