The International Society of Barristers has created an annual lectureship to honor John W. Reed, Thomas M. Cooley Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Michigan Law School and retired Wayne State University Law School dean.
On March 24, Michigan State Supreme Court Justice Bridget McCormack delivered the inaugural John Reed Lecture at the 2017 meeting of the International Society of Barristers. Titled "The Forensic Science Frontier: It's up to the Lawyers," the lecture drew on Justice McCormack's extensive involvement with studies of the validity of forensic evidence.
Professor Reed became an academic fellow of the Society in 1978 and served as administrative secretary and editor of its journal, Quarterly, from 1979 to 2010. For the last 20 years of his tenure in the Society, Professor Reed gave the concluding speech at each annual convention, urging the fellows on to a sense of high purpose.
The Society was created in 1965 and is dedicated to preserving trial by jury, the adversary system and an independent judiciary. Its founders conceived the organization to bring together the best of the trial bar in a setting devoid of partisan interests. The emphasis of the organization is on warm fellowship among professionals without regard to their orientations as plaintiffs' or defendants' advocates. In such a setting it becomes possible to consider, rationally and in good will, issues of ethics and excellence in advocacy and the role of litigation in society.