
Our Namesake
Q. Todd Dickinson is a former Under Secretary of Commerce for
Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and
Trademark Office. He was appointed to that post by President
William Jefferson Clinton, and served from 1999 to 2001.
Mr. Dickinson graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School
of Law in 1977. In addition to his government service, Mr.
Dickinson was the executive director of the American Intellectual
Property Law Association from 2008 to 2014. He currently is in
private practice at the firm Novak Druce Connolly Bove and Quigg
LLP.
After extended consideration, this chapter of the American Inns
of Court chose Mr. Dickinson as its namesake because he exemplifies
Pittsburgh's historical connection with innovation and intellectual
property law.
History of the American Inns of Court
American Inns are patterned after the English Inns of Court. The
first English Inn of Court was established in 1292 by King Edward I
to provide housing for his barristers while they were trying cases
in London. The English Inns grew in number and importance during
the Middle Ages. The English Inns emphasized the value of learning
the craft of lawyering from those already established in the
profession. Their collegial environment fostered common goals and
nurtured professional ideals and ethics.
In 1977, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and other American
lawyers and judges spent two weeks in England as part of the
Anglo-American Exchange. The Chief Justice was particularly
impressed with the collegial mentoring approach and, following his
return to the United States, authorized a pilot program that could
be adapted to the realities of law practice in the States.
Chief Justice Burger, former Solicitor General Rex Lee, and
Senior United States District Judge A. Sherman Christensen founded
the first American Inn of Court in 1980. The Inn was affiliated
with the J. Reuben Clark School of Law at Brigham Young University
in Provo, Utah. In 1985, the American Inns of Court Foundation was
established, with 12 Inns, based on a recommendation of the
Judicial Conference of the United States. Since then, the AIC
movement has grown faster than any other organization of
legal professionals. Today there are 320 American Inns of Court in
all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Over 25,000 state,
federal and administrative law judges, attorneys, law professors,
and third-year law students are active members of an American Inn
of Court, and over 50,000 are AIC alumni.
The American Inns of Court have adopted the traditional English
model of legal apprenticeship. Through the mentoring process, the
Inns are designed to improve the skills, professionalism and legal
ethics of the bench and bar. The Inns help newer lawyers to become
more effective advocates, with a keener awareness of ethics and
civility.