Webinar: Remembering Prof Dr. N.R. Madhava Menon [10th May]

Date:10^th May 2020

Time: 3:00 PM to 4.30 PM

The specialty of the webinar is that there is no pre-decided panel, as anyone interested can join the panel. All what is needed is to write the organizers in the mail rememberingprofmenon@gmail.com, requesting inclusion in the panel, with a brief profile and for getting the Zoom ID and password. Due to the time constraints a maximum time of 3 minutes may be allotted.

The YouTube link for the webinar is here.

A brief overview of the idea behind the webinar is as follows:

India honored Prof. Menon with a much-deserved Padma Bhushan, posthumously. The life of Prof. Menon in Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta and Bhopal is already in the public domain. The institutions that he built speak volumes of his legacy. However, his last days that he spent in his native village Vaikom, in the outskirts of Kottayam District in Kerala State, are not much known.

During his 'Vaikom Days' he was the Honorary Director of the Kerala Bar Council M.K. Nambyar Academy for Continuing Legal Education. The institution was a contribution of Attorney General, Senior Advocate Mr. K.K. Venugopal, who wished Prof. Menon to be the heading the institution. This period spans around three years from 2016 to 2019. Even though Prof. Menon chose Vaikom for spending his retired life, he wasn't really leading a retired life.

He conducted workshops and seminars under the aegis of the Academy not only in Kochi, but across the country. Academicians and judges attended such sessions as resource persons. For participants, it was like going back to the law school, in terms of activities and discipline. He was passionate about arbitration and mediation. During the training sessions on arbitration and mediation, Prof. Menon joined like a participant attending sessions and taking down notes. Evidently, Prof. Menon was finding new tools of dispute resolution, that could change the legal landscape of this country. During his latter speeches, he propagated the idea of institutionalization of arbitration and mediation for reducing the pendency in courts.

Prof Menon had arranged a Professional Development Workshop on Community/Development Lawyering for Social Justice Delivery from 28^th to 30^th September 2018 in Kalpetta, Wayyanad, a tribal district in Kerala. During the program, Prof. Menon expressed his wish that not only lawyers but also educated members of the tribal and other backward communities should develop themselves as community lawyers, for the benefit of the marginalized sections of the society.

The vision of Prof. Menon in the matter of continuing legal education, the institutionalization of arbitration and mediation, and promoting community lawyering, remains a dream, which should necessarily be taken forward.