Purpose, Impact, & The Stories That Define Us

Jesse Vaughn

Alumnus

Class of 1998

My favorite Mercer Law memory is from my first day of class in August of 1995. I was in Professor Sabbath’s Intro to Law class for that week of warm up. Class began that morning with Professor Sabbath introducing himself. His introduction focused a great deal of attention on his Jewish faith. After his introduction, he talked about the class and dove into the briefing of the first case.

As luck or fate would have it, I was the first one he called on. However, he looked out across the class and asked, “Miss Vaughn are you here? Can you give us the first case?” I stood up and said, “I’m here, but it is Mr. Vaughn and you of all people should know that!” My classmates looked on in horror that I would have the gall to speak that way to a law professor on the first day. Professor Sabbath then said, “Why is that Vaughn? Why should I know that?” I said, “That spelling of Jesse is the biblical spelling. Jesse was the father of David, King of Israel. He was a pretty important Jew, right?” With that my classmates were actively moving away from me for fear that lightening might come crashing down and obliterate me for me insolence. Professor Sabbath stared at me for what seemed like a couple of minutes. The silence was deafening. Then Professor Sabbath smiled and laughed. He said, “I guess you are right, Vaughn. That is great. I’m going to like you.” I exhaled and got on with briefing the case. Professor Sabbath and I turned out to be great friends. This start kicked off my law education with a bang. I loved my time at Mercer as an undergraduate and as a law student. As always, Hail Mercer and Go Bears!