Many of us who have been deeply involved in the discussion of legal opinions mourn the loss of a wonderful colleague and friend, Robert A. Thompson, July 29, 2017; and many could write a suitable memorial. I am pleased to provide this tribute to Bob Thompson.
With Bob Thompson’s passing, legal opinions practice has lost one of its important voices. Bob’s scholarship on the subject was at the highest level, and his passion about it was unwavering and undaunted. His contribution to it was always of interest and value.
We were drawn together in the 1980s in the then ABA Real Property, Probate and Trust Law, now Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section as it developed an attorney opinions committee that began taking stock of proliferating state reports on opinion practice spawned by a TriBar Opinions Committee Report in 1979, which focused on corporate transactions. The RPTE section most fortunately drew together real estate lawyers from coast to coast who experienced the frustrations in practice that the TriBar report sought to address and who were actively participating in local and state bar examination of the subject matter and development of statements of appropriate practice. Our efforts from the start were to identify a common core of principles and understandings of legal opinions to third parties in real estate secured transactions.
In the course of that pursuit, Bob wrote and published extensively, and appeared on many programs for ABA RPTE, ACREL, PLI, ALI, WGLO, and others. His most recognized contribution to legal opinion practice is his book, Real Estate Opinion Letter Practice, first published in 1993, now in its Third Edition. Bob’s perspective was forged as a California practitioner, and he was a faithful adherent to and spokesperson for the opinion reports of the California real property and business bars, as well as a proponent of state and local bar reports that documented customary practice for opinion practitioners in those jurisdictions. He was a principal author of the 1995 California Real Property Legal Opinion Report. That Report in turn built on the Real Estate Adaptation of the Legal Opinion Accord¸ 29 Real Prop., Prob. & Tr. J. 569 (1993), a project of the Legal Opinions Committee of that ABA Section in which Bob was a significant participant.
Bob’s continuing commitment to elucidation and education was most recently demonstrated by his serving as co-editor of the Real Estate Finance Opinion Report of 2012, 47 Real Prop., Tr. & Est. L. J. 213 (2012), and as a member of the Joint Drafting Committee for that report’s supplement, Local Counsel Opinion Letters in Real Estate Finance Transactions, 51 Real Prop., Tr. & Est. L. J. 167 (2016) and, until his death, of the Joint Drafting Committee for the pending report Uniform Commercial Code Opinions in Real Estate Finance Transactions.
I was deeply honored to have been acknowledged as particular inspiration for his book, and for his inscription of a later edition to me as his mentor. Many of our colleagues in opinions practice note his mentorship to them, as well as his warmth and willingness to engage with them on the subject. I will deeply miss Bob for his character, his intellect, and his professionalism but more personally for his friendship and trust. It’s hard to accept that we have done our last program together or had our last discussion about opinions.
