Retired Professor Mike Sabbath will be missed by students, alumni, and colleagues

Ask Mercer Lawyers who graduated between the years of 1978 and 2024 which professor made the biggest impression on them and you’re sure to hear one name time and time again – Mike Sabbath. They attribute words like kind, fair, honest, diligent, brilliant, decent, excellent, and committed. One alumna calls him “a gem.” Another describes him simply and inclusively as “a wonderful person.” Indeed, generations of alumni say they are successful Mercer lawyers because of Mike’s teaching and mentorship. After 46 dedicated years of service to Mercer Law School, Mike Sabbath entered into well-deserved retirement in December 2023.

Mike’s commitment to keeping in touch with alumni and maintaining relationships, both professional and personal, is legendary. Leah Chanin, director of the law library and professor of law, emerita, said, “Mike’s 46 years at Mercer University Law have been marked by outstanding teaching which includes deep concern for the wellbeing of his students. Many students regard Mike as not only their favorite teacher but as a dear friend. Mike balances professionalism with humor and friendship.” Tate Crymes, ’22 agrees. “Even though we have graduated and he has retired, we will always be Professor Sabbath’s students.”

Raised in the small town of University City, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, Mike’s family owned a delicatessen called “The Posh Nosh” (which is still in existence under different ownership), and he spent his high school years working in the deli. “I enjoyed working in the family business, but after years of slicing corned beef and kosher pickles, I decided that I’d rather spend my life outside of a kitchen doing work that was more mentally challenging.”

He started college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison planning to study medicine. Discovering that he and chemistry were not a good fit, he ended up majoring in economics. While taking courses in the business school he developed a friendship with an attorney who taught business law courses. He believed that Mike’s personality was well suited for practicing law and encouraged him to consider law school. Tired of the frigid temperatures in Wisconson, Mike decided to try Atlanta, which was just beginning to have a burgeoning legal community. “I went down from Madison, Wisconsin, in February of my senior year in 1972 (when the temperature was in the low teens) to Atlanta (where the temperature was in the upper 60s) and decided that the South was where I wanted to be. Emory provided some generous financial help, and I made the move to Atlanta.” Mike earned his J.D. from Emory University School of Law in 1975, where he served as an editor of the Emory Law Journal and was a member of the Order of the Coif. He earned an LLM degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1985.

As a third-year law student at Emory, Mike enjoyed teaching in the legal writing program. He also enjoyed writing as a member of the editorial board of the Emory Law Journal. Upon graduating he spent several years working at a large Atlanta firm doing business litigation. “I found that most of my time involved doing discovery work with very little time in the courtroom. I also found that the long hours of work and required travel made it difficult to maintain relationships outside of work, and I had fallen in love with someone I wanted to marry. It seemed like a good time to look into a teaching position. While I have not earned the ‘big firm money’ that some of my lawyer friends have, l never have regretted my decision to make a career in teaching law. It really has been a wonderful 46 years.”

Professor Emeritus Joe Claxton said, “I could talk at length about Mike’s excellence as an academician, but I want to focus on what he has meant to so many Mercerians (including me) as a human being. He is a brilliant man, but he wears his brilliance very lightly. Even our oldest alumni, who were enrolled at the Law School years before Mike became part of the legal profession often inquire about him. Mike cares about Mercerians who are 22-years-old and those who are 92-years-old, and they know it. I truly believe that he may have helped more students one-on-one than any faculty member during any era of Mercer Law School.”

Mike has served as a visiting law school professor at Emory University, Wake Forest University, and the University of Georgia and said, “I enjoyed these opportunities, but it’s always been good to come back home to Mercer. This place just fits me well.” He was the associate dean at the Law School from 1997-2002 and served as interim dean from 2002-2004. At his retirement, he taught in the areas of contracts, commercial law, and bankruptcy. For several years, he served as a reporter for a bar association committee.

Every summer between 1995 and 2015, Mike was employed as a national lecturer for Barbri, a company that offers a course that assists students throughout the United States in preparing for their state bar examinations. He delivered between 35 and 40 three-hour lectures at various locations around the country on the topics of contracts, commercial paper, and secured transactions. For ten years before that, he worked summers for a company offering a bar review course throughout the southeast region.

Professor and friend Dick Creswell said, “Mike has been one of Mercer Law’s most effective classroom teachers for decades, but his eagerness to talk at length with students outside the classroom is probably the singular feature of his time here. Not only did those conversations clarify points that students might have missed in class, but they also created personal relationships between Mike and many of his students. Mike’s genuine personal interest in his students and his self-deprecating humor have made him not just acquaintances, but friends, with Mercer lawyers everywhere.”

Mike will miss the Law School students. “I’ve enjoyed getting to know each class of students as they pass through the Law School. And though I’m an experienced teacher, I’ve learned something from every class that I’ve taught. Spending all these years around bright young people starting off on exciting careers has been so rewarding for me.”

So what are Mike’s retirement plans? Certainly to spend more time with his wife of 21 years, Lisa, their four children, six grandchildren, two dogs, and two cats. The rest is yet to be seen. “I’ve only have been retired for a short time and I haven’t figured that out yet. I asked my wife Lisa if I should try my luck on the comedy club circuit, but she says that I’m not nearly as funny as I think that I am. I guess I’ll have to come up with something else.”