A legal scholar is a legal scholar no matter where you encounter him. Some of us here in Arkansas have had the privilege of knowing Arkansas' contribution to American legal scholarship, Judge Richard Arnold of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Now and then Bill Clinton talks about appointing him to the U.S. Supreme Court, which speaks well of Bill Clinton. But the president always passes him over, being allergic to real quality. But anybody who's ever had the chance to talk to Judge Arnold is liable to come away with an education, and not just about the law.
Some scholars are like that.
They're interested in the principle of the thing. Any conversation with them almost naturally turns to ideas, and dinner into a symposium. And they tend to learn as much as they teach when they converse, which distinguishes them from the boors of the world. They don't lecture but pose thoughtful questions. Socrates taught like that, and it's still an education to read him.