Stories of Consequence

As his 50th reunion weekend at Washington and Lee University School of Law approached, Jon Spear ’76L reflected on how his three years at W&L shaped his personal and professional life.

“W&L gave me a terrific intellectual scaffolding for the rest of my life-- and I’m not done yet,” said Spear, who currently lives in McLean, Virginia. “Meeting and studying with an exceptionally bright, creative and positive group of people really helped shape my professional and adult life. I practiced law for 48 years, and the skills that I learned at W&L allowed me to keep pace with the evolution of technology and society.”

“W&L gave me a terrific intellectual scaffolding for the rest of my life-- and I’m not done yet.” - Jon Spear ’76L

Spear has expressed his appreciation for W&L in various ways, including serving as class agent and on the Law Council but perhaps most notably by donating to W&L Law every year since he graduated in 1976.

“Jon’s engagement with and support of the law school for 50 years is a wonderful example of the loyalty and community that defines W&L Law,” said Melanie Wilson, dean of the law school and Roy L. Steinheimer Jr. Professor of Law.

Spear’s diligence in giving back to W&L exemplifies alumni loyalty and the importance of ensuring current students continue to have access to resources and opportunities as they embark on their legal careers, benefitting from the intellectual and professional scaffolding the law school provides. He encourages current students and alumni to start giving back early in their careers, noting that what’s important is not the amount but developing the habit of annual support.

“It’s important to show appreciation and to recognize, even in a small way, your support for W&L and what you’ve derived from it,” Spear said. “Alumni have actively partaken of what the university has to offer, and in giving back to W&L we know where the money goes. It’s important to pay these dividends back to the school.”

“It’s important to show appreciation and to recognize, even in a small way, your support for W&L and what you’ve derived from it.” - Jon Spear ’76L

In his three years at W&L, Spear was shaped not just by his coursework, but also by the people who surrounded him, who became mentors and lifelong friends. Roger Groot, who taught criminal law, procedure and property, and Roy Steinheimer Jr., dean of the law school, became significant figures in his Spear’s life, and he noted that many of his classmates included Groot and Steinheimer on their lists when asked to reflect on influential professors ahead of their reunion weekend.

The Class of 1976L began getting together soon after they graduated, in addition to attending the law school’s official reunion weekends. He particularly appreciated the variety of experiences he encountered within his class, which was the second coed class to graduate from the law school. He recalled that while some classmates came straight to law school after college, others had embarked on other careers before coming to W&L. Spear credits this range of experience with helping to create a bond that has remained largely intact 50 years later. “We enjoyed each other, and we enjoyed the experience,” he said. Nearly half of the surviving members of his class attended their 50th reunion.

A Legal Legacy

After graduating, Spear completed a judicial clerkship in Maryland and practiced with Seyfarth, Shaw  in Washington, D.C., before embarking on a career in technology law, working on issues pertaining to computer hardware, software and telecommunications. He served as in-house counsel with IBM for almost a decade and moved to MCI in 1992 (MCI merged with WorldCom in 1997 and was later acquired by Verizon).

During this time, information technology was evolving rapidly; Spear recalled that many of the products his companies manufactured and sold didn’t exist when he was in law school (or at least nowhere near their current state), and the surrounding legal issues were largely undefined. In this uncharted territory, Spear used the tools that W&L’s legal education had provided to grow and evolve with the industry and its legal developments.

When MCI/WorldCom declared bankruptcy in 2002 after a whistleblower exposed significant corporate fraud, Spear leaned on his W&L education and the legal ethics he learned through his experience with W&L’s Honor System to help navigate the scandal and the company’s subsequent acquisition by Verizon. MCI/WorldCom was facing debarment by the US government, meaning the company was poised to lose its ability to do business with the federal government. Spear helped steer MCI/WorldCom through those issues in what was the largest American bankruptcy filing at the time, and he views that 10-month period as one of the most consequential in his career.

“This was a pivotal and existential legal issue, and I was responsible for defending and restoring the company’s ability to do business with the federal government,” said Spear, who was named Corporate Counsel of the Year in 2004 by the Washington Metro Corporate Counsel Association and received their Career Achievement Award in 2013. “It was probably the most complex, demanding thing — and had the highest business stakes — that I worked on.”

Spear also advised the company on enhancing its ethics program, and looking back, he can see how W&L’s Honor System informed his thinking around corporate ethics and the company’s need to implement a corporate code of conduct. MCI/WorldCom emerged from bankruptcy in 2004 and was acquired by Verizon Communications. Spear worked on the merger and stayed on with the company, retiring as vice president and deputy general counsel in 2013. Deciding he wasn’t quite ready for retirement, Spear maintained a part-time solo practice until retiring again in 2023.

At the recent W&L Law reunion weekend, held April 10-12, Spear and his classmates were honored as Legal Legacies (those who graduated 50 or more years ago). Spear said that it’s an honor to be recognized, and to have completed law school and practiced law for nearly five decades. He remains grateful for the friendships he formed at W&L, and he hopes the legacy he and his classmates will leave behind would make their professors proud.

“If those professors, who meant so much to us, saw us today, I would hope they’d be very proud of what they taught, what they enabled and how we applied that knowledge and education over the rest of our professional lives,” Spear said.